1. Feelings
2. November Day
3. Our Final Day
4. Never Forget
One of the hardest things in the world to do is to write a good tune. God knows I've tried enough times myself, but if it hasn't got that magical hook then, well, you might as well write some hardcore :)
Best of Both Sides have got a problem, in which it seems they aren't really trying to write a decent tune, or at least aren't making the effort to make sure that the tune fits with the music. It's as if they aren't actually listening to themselves when they're playing - sometimes on Feelings the melody in the vocals starts and then it's like the singer gives up on the tune and starts speaking instead. The rest of the melodies are pretty monotonous, with November Day weighing in at using a range-busting 3 notes!
So ok, they're songwriting leaves a lot to be desired, but worse still, the simple songs they do muster up are sang with cliché lovey emo lyrics and terribly out of tune a lot of the time in an exaggerated Tom Delonge accent, and that just shouldn't be done for a British band.
The whole thing just smacks of a singer and songwriter who has gone in totally the wrong direction, this style of pop punk was never a genre, it was just one band - Blink 182, and they perfected their style in such a way that if anyone copies it nowadays, they just sound like a poor copy.
Best of Both Sides should start over, perhaps get a new singer and songwriter and work to their strengths, which are some powerful guitar and drum-lines, until then, these are pretty unlistenable.
www.myspace.com/bestofbothsides
Nik's rating for this CD is:
