| The last decade or so has not been kind to rock radio. Even for something that has always typically been home to crappy, flash in the pan major label schlock, it has been on the decline for a number of years now. If there’s any band that stands a chance at reversing this trend, it may as well be A Thorn For Every Heart. Citing everything from heartbreak, love, life, and fun as influences, their roots are firmly entrenched in the world of mainstream rock and they make no effort to conceal this fact. This is shamelessly fun and catchy pop rock with stadium sized choruses and honest to goodness guitar solos. No more, and no less.
What makes ATFEH's new album It's Hard To Move You work is its lack of pretentiousness. A Thorn For Every Heart are not trying to convince you they’re anything that they aren’t here, and it’s refreshing in its unassuming honesty. It’s not a shitty pop album from ex-hardcore kids trying to pretend they still have some scene cred, like Fall Out Boy, and it’s not whiny rap-rock from an overblown bunch of rock stars who have no damn right to be as sad as they are, like Linkin Park, and for the love of all that is holy, it doesn’t sound like Nickelback. What it is, however, is a collection of tightly crafted rock songs from a bunch of passionate young kids who seem to have their hearts in the right place, and that’s all it’s presented as.
With that said though, mainstream rock like this has only got enough gas in it to go so far. It's Hard To Move You isn’t going to change your life, it’s kind of generic, and it probably won’t appeal to the majority of this site’s readership, but it’s about as good as this kind of music gets and you can’t knock it for that. I would hand this to a friend and say, “Dude, this album kicks ass,” and so on that's how well crafted ATFEH's new offering is. This band’s songwriting is air tight. This disc might not make it into heavy rotation in the mainstream radio, but if I were to happen to hear ATFEH on the radio, I'd probably call majority of my friends and tell them to tune in!
~ Wayne
June 13 2007 |
