Album Review - Dropping Daylight

Artist – Dropping Daylight
Album – Brace Yourself

Emo is the new pop. Bands like Dropping Daylight and My Chemical Romance are the new Backstreet Boys and N'sync (they may even have a gay member to back up my claim). All you need is a voice from News Jersey or Ohio (or at least someone that sounds like they're from New Jersey or Ohio) and the music of Hoobastank played at faster RPM’s. Add a little mascara and some bad clothes, and you have an emo band. Never is this more obvious than with Dropping Daylight’s debut Brace Yourself.

Now I have been known to praise some emo records, and I admit that there is some emo I actually enjoy. I may snicker at the clothes, but the riffs are hard to ignore. That is not the case this time. Its not that Brace Yourself is bad, its just all been done before. The first single, the title track, calls upon Taking Back Sunday vocals over Hoobastank’s music, which works better than it sounds but still can’t hold itself up on its own. “Apologies” sounds like the forced token sympathetic song, and “War Song” doesn’t stand out among the anti-war songs we have been barraged with lately.

There aren’t any tracks that really stand out, which makes the record sound forced and hurried. It could be that Dropping Daylight just hasn’t had time to evolve, but the more likely scenario is that this is the sound of a dying genre. Let’s face it, emo has lasted longer than grunge and pop, and now we have hit the bottom of the barrel. This record reminds me that emo’s days are numbered and I am glad. It is time for something new. A grunge comeback, maybe?

2 out of 10
-B

If you like this record, try:

Taking Back Sunday – Louder Now
Hoobastank – The Reason
Lostprophets – Start Something