I don’t remember what movie the line came from or who said it,
\nbut when I review unsigned bands, I often hear the line in my head,
\n“There are eight million stories in the naked city…”<\/p>\n
… and New Hampshire-based Ten Story Love is one of them. This
\npop-rock four-piece cranks out decent rock and roll, depsite having
\na little more work to do, evidenced on their self-titled CD.<\/p>\n
The band – lead vocalist\/guitarist Brad Page, guitarist\/vocalist
\nScot Gibbs, bassist Michael Haught and now former drummer Jason
\nWaugaman – are a pretty tight musical outfit. (Dave Stearns became
\nthe band’s new drummer recently.) The overall sound on
\nTen Story Love<\/i> is surprisingly crisp, even though I would
\nhave bumped the treble knob up just a hair. At times, their playing
\nreminds me of Big Head Todd And The Monsters, not a bad band to be
\ncompared to.<\/p>\n
What strikes me is that Page, on the band’s Website, seems to
\ndownplay his ability to play guitar. In fact, this is not the
\nband’s weakness at all; the guitar lines, while not flashy, suit
\nthe mood quite well. It is the vocal department that needs some
\nwork. Page is an average singer, but there are times where it
\nsounds like he’s straining to stay in key (“In A Different
\nWorld”).<\/p>\n
But there are times on this album where everything just clicks
\nright into place. The opening track, “The Perfect Girl,” almost has
\na Todd Rundgren-like self-deprecation to it: “She’s the perfect
\ngirl \/ And she’s not mine.” “Breakdown Lane” is almost Delta
\nblues-like in nature, and is a fun one to listen to. Other
\nstandouts on this disc include “Marian On The Steps,” “Human Torch”
\nand “It Happens Every Time”.<\/p>\n
Other times, the concept is good, but the songwriting shows it
\noccasionally still needs a coat of paint or two. “Go Fish” is cute,
\nbut a little corny, in its description of a relationship gone sour.
\n“The Company Store” is an okay effort about selling yourself out in
\norder to succeed in business, but it needed a little more emotion
\nfor my tastes. The album’s closer, “This Island Earth”, well…
\nlet’s just say I’ll never be able to hear this title again without
\nthinking of
\nMystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie<\/i>. Sorry, guys – nice
\ntry, otherwise.<\/p>\n
The gist of it is that Ten Story Love is a band who, in this
\nparticular incarnation, had been together for only three years.
\nThere is a lot of musical maturity that you can hear on this disc,
\nbut Page and company still need to tighten up things a little bit,
\nparticularly in the vocals and the songwriting. These are things
\nthat only come along with the scars of life on the road, so I’m
\nsure that things will iron themselves out.<\/p>\n
\nTen Story Love<\/i> is a good start… but I’m waiting to see
\nwhat happens in future chapters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7306],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-38785","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ten-story-love","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38785"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}