THE AMSTERDAM RED LIGHT DISTRICT - Gone For A While
December 23, 2014, 9 years ago
(Red-Light Records)
This French punk (I guess) band start out a bit promising, channeling the revolutionary sass of Refused, who were a great band, make no mistake. But then it quickly slides into typical screaming/singing punk/rock, and we're not even through opener "Time Flies" before the ennui kicks in. Things are redeemed momentarily in "Just Have A Good Time," which is like the simple parts of Faith No More's catalogue: weird, but kinda cool, but for the love of everything, this band just needs to can it with the good cop/bad cop vocals. The clean vocals are actually cool and different, pretty emotive and stylish, and not just trying to get into your pants. But lose the screaming: it's ineffective and just takes away from this band's power. There are interesting moments sprinkled throughout: "A Chance To Change," for example, brings to mind weird early '90s alt-metal like, say, Mind Funk (you're welcome), more than the Warped pop-punk/emo that this band actually delivers. It sounds tentative, sounds like a band who have no idea if they want to be appealing to 13-year-olds or not, and the end result is, basically, a headache.
