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Written by Adam Mendelevitz
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Friday, 04 May 2007 |
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Oh No Not Stereo (EP)
Takeover Records
C+
 Sky Nielsen and Myk Agee are trying to burst onto the music scene as the band Oh No Not Stereo with their latest, self-titled EP. The album is a roller-coaster ride of hard and soft punk rock sounds, but throughout most of it, there’s still a nagging feeling at the back of my head.
The opening track, simply labeled Instrumetal, sets the edgy tone as Nielsen jams on his guitar while yelling out an occasional “hey!” or “yeaahhh!” As the title might infer, this song is little more than a jam session, but it is a pretty awesome one. Where You Are keeps up the energy from the first track (and even the background scream), but the lyrics are a merely a symbol of what is to come. |
The CD starts to lose momentum at One More Thing I Love. Throughout this song, they repeatedly praise California, or it might be a metaphor for a woman the singer loves. In either case, it sounds similar to a Yellowcard song, but without the violin at the end. Unfortunately, the album sinks even more by the next track, entitled Burn The City Down. This song seems to copy the letter of restless, teenage angst, but doesn’t quite get the spirit that others have done before, and have done much better than this.
Thirty-Two keeps repeating “We’re all slaves! There’s nothing you can do about it!” I really don’t know what the hell this song is about, or why they chose 32 as the basis of this song title. My only hint was this excerpt at the beginning, “I crawled inside of a grown woman today/32 guitars all break after I play.” I suppose that’s my punishment for actually trying to make sense of the lyrics in this song. Quite simply, they pile on the manufactured angst at an unknown entity without putting much substance behind it.
Every Link In The Chain seems markedly different from the rest of the album, in that the lyrics actually seem to lead to some point. The vocals have a nice quality that almost bare resemblance to something from Ok Go. This song seems to talk about the path to stardom, and the obstacles one must overcome to continue along it.
Overall, the music is pretty good. The band demonstrates that they have a good grip on their instruments and can play metal or soft punk. However, the lyrics leave a lot to be desired. Hopefully, they’ll be able to work on those on their next album.
For more info please visit ohnonotstereo.com | | |
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