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The Classic Crime

The Silver Chord

Written by: MR on 28/09/2008 17:27:09

When you enter the Myspace page of The Classic Crime, you can read that they've described themselves as indie rock. I don't really want to discuss genres here, but one thing is for sure, no way in hell is "The Silver Chord" indie rock.

The Classic Crime (from now on TCC) are playing catchy rock/pop with an emoish twist. It is very polished - the sound that defines them has become a subject many people love to hate in recent years.

Where the band is at their best, they kind of remind me of early Hoobastank, combined a bit with the structures of Breaking Benjamin and a bit of Panic! At The Disco on top. The vocals are aggressive and Matt does a good job all around the album. This guy doesn't get the prize for being an original vocalist, but he's still good, because strictly technically he is way ahead of many other singers out there. When TCC are on their worst, and it happens quite often, they simply sound like a bad copy of Simple Plan in terms of song structures and chord-choices or Good Charlotte in terms of the lyrical context. It hurts when you know there's a band with great potential who don't have a clue how to channelize it into something good. Take, for instance, the song "Salt In The Song". It's soooo cliché. You don't need lyrics written on paper, you instinctively know what the next words will be cause you've heard the same shit from another shitty band played on the radio (probably Simple Plan).

Sometimes TCC come across as a cheesy band who mainly will reach out to 14 year old emos with dark minds. For the most part, the world is shit for them and we are all to blame... hmmm... the only problem is that the guys from TCC don't strike me as the kind of guys who have really seen the dark sides of life of which they so vigorously sing about. But I'll leave that for you to decide upon.

As I mentioned before though, there's a lot of potential in the band and the album has some really good songs. "Just A Man", and "Medisin" are both really good. TCC are great at making bridges that lead to their choruses, as "Abracadavers" shows, just listen to it and note its Muse-esque feeling to it.

In the end, "The Silver Chord" shows that TCC still have some soul-searching to do. They need to figure out what works and what doesn't. There are things that need to be left out. There are 15 songs on the record, and the last 3 are probably the worst on the album. It would have been a much more fitting end with "The Ascent" - an instrumental piece which fades out perfectly - as the salute and goodbye to the listener. There are some good things in some of ballads on the album as well, but mostly they are dull and don't contribute with much. The thing is, the band is truly at their best when they get really mad and play some rock! I just want some authenticity lyrically to fit in with some really cool tunes. As it stands right now, if asked, I couldn't distinguish them from the bands that inspire them, because The Classic Crime just sound like parts of different bands and that's a huge problem. To wrap it up, I'll say that this is in many ways a mediocre album, but I have faith that as the guys get older and wiser, we could see greater things coming their way.

Download: Just A Man, Abracadavers, Medisin
For the fans of: Panic! At The Disco, Hoobastank, Simple Plan
Listen: Myspace

Release date 22.07.2008
Tooth And Nail Records