Record Label: Island Records
Genre: Pop
Band Link: link
Buy on Amazon.com link
At first I was a little bit impressed that The Rocket Summer is essentially one guy, Bryce Avary, who plays just about everything on this album save a couple of horns. His ability to play all of the instruments is pretty impressive, and the production sounds great. Unfortunately, that’s about all the positive things I can say about this album. I was debating whether it’s just that I don’t like this album versus whether I think it’s a good album or not. But I realized the biggest problem lies in Avary’s voice, a nasally and annoyingly high-pitched whine that sounds androgynous and too frequently obnoxious. Then again, the songs really aren’t that special – piano based pop/rock in a very radio-friendly vein. It doesn’t ever really veer into emo, which is I guess a good thing, but at the same time, it really doesn’t do anything. I feel like this dude just needs to expand his musical horizons, listen to some Tom Waits, and just try something outside the comfort zone.
Bottom Line: I didn’t like it. But otherwise, it’s generic pop rock, even if one guy played everything on it.
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