INTERVIEW: ARCANE ROOTSHaving finally released début album ‘Blood And Chemistry,’ we met up with vocalist/guitarist Andrew Groves to discuss the new album, being compared to Biffy Clyro and more.
INTERVIEW: NATIVESCurrently on tour with The Summer Set and a new EP set to be released soon, we caught
up with New Forest's Natives to talk about the new EP and album, the UK rock scene, the transition from being Not Advised to becoming Natives and much more.
FIVES: THE BEST WONDER YEARS SONGSThis week Lansdale, Pennsylvania’s The Wonder Years released their fourth album - ‘The Greatest Generation,’ a record that sees the pop punk quintet reach their creative peak in a number of ways. With a wealth of material in their discography, Already Heard's Sean Reid and Tom Knott took on the tricky task of picking out the five best songs from The Wonder Years. Find out what we picked and let us know if you agree or disagree?
INTERVIEW: MALLORY KNOXFollowing the release of their superb 'Signals' album, Mallory Knox have certainly become ones to watch in recent months. We caught up with the band to discuss joining Search & Destroy Records, how vital the festival season and touring are, what it feels like to be a part
of the expanding British rock scene and much more.
ALREADY HEARD RECOMMENDS: OVER THE OCEANOver The Ocean have crafted a compelling, brooding record with their latest effort ‘Be Given To The Soil.’ With intense specific precision and delicate accuracy that echoes the likes of Explosions In The Sky and Sigur Ros. Jesse Hill from the band to discusses how the
album came together, the importance of precision, being compared to post-rock pioneers and more.
VERSUS: BRING ME THE HORIZON - 'THERE IS A HELL...' VS 'SEMPITERNAL'After a top ten UK album and an outstanding UK tour with festival dates on both sides of the Atlantic to follow, Bring Me The Horizon are having a fantastic 2013 and are now featured in the latest edition of "Versus." It's ‘There is a Hell, Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There is a Heaven, Let’s Keep it a Secret’ vs the bands latest release, 'Sempiternal.'
ALREADY HEARD TRACK GUIDE: ALEXANDER - SAY HELLOWe catch up with Newcastle Indie Rock quartet Alexander to find out more about their debut album 'Say Hello' for a “Already Heard Track Guide” feature.
Album Review: The Calling Card - Everything You’re Not
Let’s be straight here, if you’re going to confess to being “the new kings of this town” you must have the songs to back up these strong statements. Failing that be from a really small town with no other inhabitants. Sadly however The Calling Card don’t have this formula on ‘Everything You’re Not.’
The album opens with the hilarious ‘New Kings of This Town’. As a song it’s alright, but that’s just it; it’s only OK. It’s not setting the stereo on fire kind of stuff. The track (and album) suffers from some awful vocals. It could be the pseudo-American styling that vocalist Benj Squibb has adopted, but in actual fact he cannot sing. That is a hard fact! The song is just weak, it lacks bite.
The album plods along and makes little or no impact. Not even the generic pop-punk song titles can change our interest in this one. There’s even the usual quiet song in the form of ‘Lost @ Sea.’It’s painful to listen to, it sounds like Jesse Lacey had a stroke and discovered the diary of a 14 year old. It’s the kind of song people laugh at on YouTube which accidently ends up becoming a massive hit. Perhaps this is part of some cleverly thought out PR campaign? For some bizarre reason this song also benefits from the best production throughout the entire album. The rest of it sounds like it was recorded inside a telephone box stuck inside of the world’s biggest biscuit tin.
After that “token quiet song,” we’re treated to some stock sound effects which open ‘Keep The Change.’ It veers away from the bad pop-punk which the rest of this album has treated us to and sounds similar to early Thrice. Why there isn’t more of this on the album, we’ll never know. The vocals sound a little bit better on this track and we can just about make it to the end of the song.
As an album this won’t stick out. Sadly there are just too many other great pop-punk bands around, most notably Save Your Breath. Funnily enough they also come from Newport, perhaps it’s them that are the “kings of the town.”
1/5
‘Everything You’re Not’ by The Calling Card is available now.
The Calling Card links: Facebook.
Words by Colin Henderson (@colinah87)
