An Enjoyable, If Overrated, Release
Posted August 04, 2010
By JJFrancesco_NRT, Staff Reviewer
House of Heroes made quite a name for themselves in the Christian Rock industry with their WWII-themed "The End Is Not The End" release in 2008. Now they are back with "Suburbia," their much-hyped follow-up.
The album has been getting glowing reviews and "Album of the Year" already seems a label in it's future.
Now, for those of us who don't gush at every riff these guys do, is this album still good? Short answer, yes. It is by no means the musical landmark some make it out to be, but that doesn't mean it's bad either.
Quite the contrary actually, opening rockers "Relentless" and "Elevator" are enjoyable and catchy rock tracks guaranteed to get stuck in your head for awhile.
The album delivers a lot of other memorable tracks in the form of "Love is for the Middle Class," "Disappear," "Constant," and the mighty closer "Burn Me Down."
"She Mighty Mighty," is a song I like musically a lot more than lyrically. I guess the same could be said for heralded tracks "God Save The Foolish Kings," and "Independence Day For A Petty Thief." These aren't bad songs, but I don't get the hype around them at all.
The remaining tracks are good if not stellar songs. Amazon and iTunes each have an exclusive bonus track as well. From Amazon, we get "Galveston," another upbeat, if very average, rocker. "Patient," the iTunes exclusive, however, was a nice musical surprise. It's a very slow tune, the slowest song on the record I'd say. It's a short(albeit a little too short) piano-driven ballad that's musically enjoyable.
As a whole, I like Suburbia. It was definitely worth the $3.98($2.99 from Amazon plus $.99 for "Patient" from iTunes)it cost me. Most of those songs will likely find significant play in my MP3 Player for months to come. I don't think it's as good as it's predecessor, but it's still very good, and indeed among the better releases this year. However, I think it's a bit pre-mature to call this "Album of the Year" material at this stage in the game. It's a very good album, but unless you are in love with everything this band does, you might find that it is definitely a bit overpraised. Again, that's not to say it is a bad album at all, but I'm not handing out the awards for it yet. View All Music And Book Reviews By JJFrancesco_NRT | View JJFrancesco_NRT's Profile
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