The BurgerBlog

Anarbor

Hearing Colours Seeing Sounds wasn’t a fantastic EP, but that was not what drew me to Anarbor in the first place. This year’s EP Free Your Mind demonstrates significant band growth. Anarbor has begun to sound like a mix of Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco, and The Academy Is…. Anarbor has seemed to have found a niche that has already been conquered, but because the sound is familiar, fun, and poppy, it’s an easy listen. Thankfully, they have also diverted their attention to fixing their lyrical mishaps. Free Your Mind is a fantastic demonstration of how a band can grow, and I can only hope that they will push themselves further to discover their own sound.

Once again, their first song, “Let The Games Begin” is the best track on the album. It is heavily guitar laden, with a chorus screaming “BANG BANG!” to add intensity. The flashy vocals mixed with the start and stop rhythm is uncanny to Fall Out Boy’s latest album, and this is a good thing.

“The Brightest Green” is my favorite track on the album. It once again shows off Echeverri’s talent as a vocalist, with a joyride of ups and downs, falsetto and Cute is What We Aim For sounding rock. Anarbor also managed to clean up “Where The Wild Things Are (Monsters),” and it is now a far more enjoyable track than what they produced on Hearing Colours Seeing Sounds.

In “You And I” and “Halfway Sober,” Anarbor unfortunately falls back into their original problem: crappy lyrics. “Halfway Sober” whines, “And I’m only halfway sober/And it’s not getting me any closer/When words got me down/You keep me up” and “You And I” complains, “Without you, there’s no reason for my story/And when I’m with you I can always act the same/Forever, yeah if we’re together/We can make it better.” Ouch. And After two unremarkable songs, the closing song’s fantastic lyrics get muddled. Echeverri belts in “Always Dirty, Never Clean,” “I’ll take dignity over industry/My wardrobe has never meant shit to me/I’ll sell my/songs, but never my soul/And what the fuck happened to rock and roll?” Well said, Echeverri! If you could write like that for the rest of the album, Anarbor would be much further along than it is now.

Anarbor needs to grow balls to make a sound outside of the many wellknowns that they emulate. The poppy songs will grow old over time, but for now they’re just fun; they will not “free your mind.” Anarbor has growing to do, but they’ve already made great leaps for a new band.

Rating: C+

Recommended Songs: The Brightest Green, Let The Games Begin, Always Dirty Never Clean

Toss These Songs: You And I

Anarbor

Just out of high school pop-punk band Anarbor is boring. Or at least, that was my first impression when I first started listening to their EP Hearing Colours Seeing Sounds. But after a few listens, I’ve decided that this band is worth reviewing, seeing as their following EP showed significant improvement. Hearing Colours Seeing Sounds won’t change the way you listen to music, address anything groundbreaking, or provide a new style of music. However, it will give you the first peek into Anarbor, a band I suspect will grow big within the next three years.

Slade Echeverri, the band’s lead singer, uses the opener “I’ll Stay To The West” to flaunt his Brendon Urieish vocals. Somewhat emo, somewhat grunge, mostly pop, “I’ll Stay To The West” is by far the best song on the EP.

The following track, “Where The Wild Things Are (Monsters),” is the perfect example of Anarbor’s downfalls. Some of the lyrics are as follows:

“You’re the monster underneath/Lost of all faith/Feeding off my dreams/Where I thought I was safe/So shut your mouth/And bite your tongue/Because your a liar never fooling anyone/You’re the smoke in the air making everyone choke.”

Cringe? So did I. And Anarbor offers no originality to make this song worth listening to over and over, except for the offer of poppish catchiness.

A quality piece on this album is “Anatomy,” which is comparable to the Plain White T’s slower side. With harpy guitar riffs and Echeverri’s carrying voice, the only thing that could murder this track is lyrics. Homicide it is! “I wanna feel the beat of your selfish heart/As our bodies melt into one in the dark/I wanna hold you close as we fall into the night.” Not as horrible as “Where The Wild Things Are (Monsters),” but still cliché and a bit misplaced.

By the last track, it’s clear that Anarbor is aiming to attract fans with a familiar sound. Hearing Colours Seeing Sounds doesn’t offer anything new to music fans, but thankfully Anarbor has a second, more recent EP that demonstrates growth within the band. Hearing Colours Seeing Sounds is an EP that future fans of Anarbor will buy and think, Wow, they came from that. I see future growth for this band, and once they outgrow the first album jitters, they will be popular.

Rating: C-

Recommended Songs: Anatomy, I’ll Stay To The West

Toss These Songs: Where The Wild Things Are (Monsters)