At the turn of the decade, a series of bands came out with
\nalbums under the Universal umbrella. Of those bands, the power-pop
\ntrio Shades Apart impressed me the most with their album
\nEyewitness<\/i>. The solid songwriting and absolute power of that
\nalbum – combined with the placement of their song “Stranger By The
\nDay” on the
\nAmerican Pie<\/i> soundtrack – suggested great things ahead for
\nthis group.<\/p>\n
Now, we’re nearing the halfway point of 2001, and only one of
\nthose bands has become superstars. You can see this coming a mile
\naway – it wasn’t Shades Apart. Damn.<\/p>\n
Their latest disc,
\nSonic Boom<\/i>, suggests that people should give them a second
\nchance at stardom, even if they do get off to a slower than
\nexpected start.<\/p>\n
The band – guitarist\/lead vocalist Mark V., bassist\/vocalist
\nKevin Lynch and drummer Ed Brown – stick to the same formula that
\nshould have brought them success on
\nEyewitness<\/i>: to-the-point, tightly-written songs with a
\nslight punk edge and more than a little radio-friendly atmosphere.
\nThey also bring a slightly more stylish production sound – and this
\nworks against Shades Apart at the beginning.<\/p>\n
Tracks like “Conspiracy,” “Gravity” and “Beat The Beat” don’t
\nhave the same kind of catchiness and snap that the opening tracks
\nfrom
\nEyewitness<\/i> had. They also sound a little too sterilized for
\nthe group’s good – a suggestion that things might not improve as
\nthe album proceeds.<\/p>\n
Fortunately for the listener, Shades Apart got some kind of
\nwake-up call at about the one-third mark, and the remainder of
\nSonic Boom<\/i> is used to play a serious game of catch-up.
\nLuckily, tracks like “Got Shot Down,” “Behind The Wheel” and
\n“Superzero” have the same qualities that made the shoulda-been hits
\non Eyewitness so enjoyable. Even the cute factor of “Rebel Teenager
\nFrom Mars” works for the band, taking the traditional “forbidden
\nlove” tale and putting a new twist on the plot.<\/p>\n
What Shades Apart needed to do on
\nSonic Boom<\/i> was to come out with all guns blazing, proving to
\npeople that the powerhouse that was
\nEyewitness<\/i> was no fluke. By not putting their A-list songs
\nat the start of the disc, the band is forced to climb out of the
\nhole they created for the rest of the album – and sadly, many
\npeople might judge this disc on the first three or four songs.<\/p>\n
\nSonic Boom<\/i> is not quite the follow-up that was expected from
\nShades Apart, but it shows more than a few signs of life. Here’s
\nhoping the third time in the majors will be the charm.<\/p>\n
2001 Christopher Thelen and “The Daily Vault”. All rights
\nreserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without
\nwritten permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of
\nRepublic \/ Universal Records, and is used for informational
\npurposes only.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7384],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-39553","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-shades-apart","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39553","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=39553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39553"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}