vagrant. 509 / 13 tracks / 2005

Working title for this album was „Church and Destroy“. Ltd Edition with bonus CD.

Their slickest and most mainstream-ish album so far. Basically, this is still emotional pop punk, but the polished „Alternative Rock“ production by Jerry Finn (who has been working with Green Day, Blink-182 and Jawbreaker before) makes this much more radio and MTV compatible than their previous albums. Well, nothing wrong with that per se, but there’s just nothing memorable or original about this music. It’s enjoyable in a way you can enjoy pop radio once in a while, but then again, at least some innovation would be nice. Oh well. The “Special Edition” contains a second CD with demo and acoustic versions of the same songs; most of them are better and more authentic than the final versions. [6]

Ihr eingängigstes und glattestes Werk, nicht zuletzt wegen der Radio- unud MTV-tauglichen Produktion von Jerry Finn, der auch schon mit/für Green Day oder Blink 182 gearbeitet hat. Im Grundsatz noch immer emotionaler Pop-Punk, der allerdings ecken-, kanten- und weitgehend zahnlos daherkommt. Etwas interessanter ist die “Special Edition”, die eine Bonus-CD mit Demo- und Akustikversionen des kompletten Albums hat – einfacher, krachiger, authentischer.

Tracks: time to waste / poison / burn / mercy me / dethbed / settle for satin / sadie / fall victim / i was a prayer / prevent this tragedy / back to hell / your neck / smoke