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Bayside

Bayside

Victory Records

I surely can't be the only one waiting patiently for the tired pop-punk/emo genre to disappear into the bowels of the earth from whence it came. Apparently, Victory Records believes there is still some money to be made from scraping the barrel a little more; however, they wouldn't have bothered giving us the second release from Long Island four-piece Bayside. Despite featuring the same predictable musicianship we've all heard far too many times before from bands like Senses Fail, we are thankfully spared the usual mixture of whiny choruses and pseudo-hardcore screaming. The vocal focus rests solely on the shoulders of singer/guitarist Anthony Ranieri, which makes it all the more of shame that his voice is so bland. Ranieri desperately wants to be Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba, but he fails to harness any of Skiba's energy, and at the record's worst moments, such as 'They Looked Like Strong Hands,' he and the rest of the band venture dangerously close to the overblown post-grunge territory inhabited by such 'luminaries' as Creed and Collective Soul. If all this isn't enough to have you running in the opposite direction of your nearest record store, there are always the lyrics to consider. Stop me if you haven't heard a hundred variations on the line, "If I had a gun and shot it at your face, would you promise not to get out of the way?" If you haven't, don't worry, you could probably find another 99 variations elsewhere on this record. This album is only for those who still can't get enough of this done-to-death style - are there any of you left?

Morningbell

Forgetting to Wake Up

The second full-length from Gainesville residents Morningbell, by contrast, is a breath of fresh air. And fresh air is probably the ideal accompaniment to what is mostly a laid-back, harmony-packed summery pop album. I say 'mostly' because this is not an album you can really generalize about - each track is distinctive. 'Perspective' sounds like the Beatles in their drug-addled heyday, is followed by 'The Ballad of Basooney and La Cucaracha,' which features a drum machine and Elliot Smith-esque vocals from singer/guitarist Travis Atria; while 'Whistle Song' recalls the calmer moments of the Flaming Lips. And that's just a couple of examples; look elsewhere and you can hear echoes of Belle & Sebastian, Rilo Kiley and Onelinedrawing, to name but a few. Ultimately, Morningbell are not about to revolutionize the music world, but they manage to distil their melting pot of influences into a sound that, while perhaps not groundbreaking, is entirely their own. If only the major labels and big independents like the aforementioned Victory would get the message and start putting out records like this, instead of here-today-gone-tomorrow fad bands, the world would be a better place.