My advice: If you’re looking for another passable scream-o band to get into, check out the debut album, “Just Breathe,” from LoveHateHero.
Recently signed with record label Ferret Music, LoveHateHero manages to be interesting enough to check out if you’re into this sort of music. While its lyrics may be recycled, its musicality is pretty good, all things considered.
It’s easier to start with the bad news than the good, so let’s just get on with it. LoveHateHero’s lyrics are of the predictable variety and saturate the album like bad high school poetry. Ever been lonely? Ever feel like killing yourself? Ever love someone despite the fact that they lied to you? Ever feel like life was just a dream? Then LoveHateHero’s lyrics may connect with you. It is, however, tiresome to hear the same things being dealt with in the exact same fashion on every single emo album.
This is my biggest frustration with not just the album but modern music in general. If you’re not doing something new, then you’re not doing something. Period. The cookie-cutter lyrics really do hamper the band from achieving anything above mediocrity, but on the other hand I’m sure it’ll gain a lot of fans from 16-year-old girls who also post comments on their band’s MySpace page.
Finding good lyrics, unfortunately, seems to be much harder than finding good musical hooks to catch the listener. Part of this probably comes simply from the difficult nature of writing good lyrics, but it also partly stems from the complacency of the public in putting up with them. For some genres such as dance, good lyrics aren’t as much of a necessity, because the purpose of dance music is not to listen to the words but to feel the beat. In the case of emo, however, good emo by definition should have lyrics that evoke emotion. And that is where this band fails.
Fortunately, the album redeems itself from sinking into the dregs of utter failure through the superb musicianship of its members. On the whole, the album sounds pretty even-paced and a fast pace, at that. After a short intro, the album bounds into “This Dream Called Life.”
The guitar work is intricate and a dull moment is never allowed as the music pushes forward. For the most part, the wall of sound propels the listener forward rather than hindering him or her.
The sheer pace ensures entertainment, even if it’s fleeting. “The Risk” features a nice guitar riff, and “Theatre of Robots” is notable for featuring a female vocalist, as well as slowing the pace down a bit for the finale.
Overall, “Just Breathe” is fast enough to entertain for a few listens but may not be sufficiently deep to hold one’s attention in the long run. Bands like LoveHateHero are a dime-a-dozen, which is a shame considering the level the band could be at had it only improved its lyrics.
LoveHateHero will be playing at The Gypsy Tea Room tonight.
Chris Simpson is a freshman history major. He can be reached at [email protected]
