A brief overview of the band starts with Nick Santino whom started A Rocket to the Moon in the summer of 2006 as experiment with a few different musicians. Eventually they played "The Bambaoozle" in 2008 garnering them an appearance on the show Total Request Live, where they premiered "Dakota." The performance peaked the interest of Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz who wanted to set them up with a split deal with his label "Decaydance Records" and "Fueled By Ramen" though unfortunately they only were able to strike a deal with "Ramen" in August 2008. They have toured extensively and have released one other full-length album entitled On Your Side which peaked at 82 on the US Billboard 200. After another go at touring for a few years, the band returned to the studio and decided to adapt the sound that had original gained them so much notoriety and came out with the subject of today's ROCK D3COD3D: Wild & Free.
Bah! More like "Tame & Caged"
The Singles
This album has actually spawned a multitude of singles unlike last week's album but for the life of me I cannot understand why. The first is entitled "Whole Lotta You" which seems like a tamer version of "Life Of The Party" by Boys Like Girls. The song is just like it's follow-up "Going Out" the only exception being that "Whole Lotta You" is about a party where "No one wants to go home tonight alone." Which marks it down to a listen compared to it's follow up that is a fun tune made around having fun and as the title says "going out" to have fun with the mates regardless of the trouble they may get in. For that reason it gets a low "buy it" as a follow-up song to keep your energy flowing but it definitely is not a stand alone scream along to the lyrics song.The last single "Ever Enough" describes a good bit of the second half of the album. A ballad dedicated to the girl the writer loves asking the question if what he has done is enough. The subject may not be a new idea by any extremes but it definitely adds a nice change of pace for a band that seemingly has been all about partying to this point. It's a great example of not only Nick Sanito's simplicity with writing a good set of lyrics but the band itself composing a good backing that is rather reminiscent of classic 90's rock at times that makes it automatic walk to "Buy It."
The Album Itself...
The rest of the album is actually a pretty good mixed back of emotions sadly lacking emotional depth except for a song here and there. The one thing I will say about A Rocket to the Moon is that when they really try at emotional subject matter they can really hit it well. For example, the stand-out track on this album "Another Set of Wings" paints the picture of a man dealing with the loss of his lover. Unlike the majority of the album this loss is not the simple break up tone, but an inside look of a man who's love has died and he cannot bring himself to move ("I need my angel like heavens needs a new pair of wings."). It's heart wrenching to hear just the deadness in the singer's voice, which I give major kudos to Nick for not doing what I expected him to do and turn the power up to eleven to finish the song on a powerful note. He instead let's the instrumentation paint his canvas while adding subtle vocal harmonies around the same sounding vocal part really connecting you with the main character who is at a low many of us may never go through.Two other great tracks are "First Kiss" and "Lost and Found" because they are essentially opposites of one another. The first is a retelling of the first date (and subsequently kiss) this couple goes through and even though times may get tough they can always reference that to know why they should be together. It's here I'd like to mention that this album seems to have a Goo Goo Dolls sense to it in terms of it's vocals (minus the twang) and some of the guitar parts which is a nice touch to hear as it's been long since that band has released anything. "Lost and Found" is the final track and has a sense of starting over, going through stories of people with the message being "You need to get lost before you get found." It starts with a grand piano that beautifully accompanies the vocals that slowly swells as strings, oo's, and drums come envelope the sound scape. My only complaint is that with auto tune the way it is you can actually clearly hear it correcting him in this song which can be a sad disheartening. All in all though it's a pretty great country sounding tune.
Very confused on the image your band is going for...
Sadly, the whole album doesn't fair amazingly though with a majority of it being the same tempo, tune, and message, you may find yourself incredibly bored as the album progress. The worst songs on the album though have got to be the titular track , "Wild and Free" and "You're My Song." The first's worse problem is it is too tame for the subject material and it lacks the dynamic punch and fun a song of this titled should have. Sure it has a few nice moments but a majority of the song is sorely just a let down and leaves a lot to be desired but, it's nothing compared to "You're My Song." This song... I could go on for hours about what's wrong with this song but I'll save all of you the hassle of seeing that rant. Long story short it's another song that mentions other song titles intermittently throughout it's running time particularly cramming a majority in the chorus ("You're my Sweet Home Alabama"). I find these songs lazy as the originator "American Pie" by Don McLean used expression to reference songs without being so over-the-head with it. This song honestly just seems like a lazy attempt to cash-in an easy hit that is completely lackluster and a tad annoying. Do yourself a favor and DO NOT listen to this song as you're wasting your time.In all though Wild and Free wasn't a horribly bad experience but I do wonder why this was not released as a country album because I feel it would've charted and suited it better to be there. Either way though it definitely creates yet another genre "Fueled By Ramen" has it's hand in though aren't milking it for what it's worth. I'd like to say if you can appreciate country music or this brand of "Nu-Country" than this album is definitely a good listen for you but if not, take a listen to the "Buy It" list below and see if you can find a song that tickles your fancy.
Two down, two to go as next week we take a look at one of my all-time NOT favorite bands Paramore.
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