Review: "Take It How You Want It" by Self Against City

So i figured i would do something a little obscure for my first review...try not to go with something obvious and also this album is new to me. I happen to run across this band while listening to my Pandora station and thought they were interesting. And so i took a listen to an EP they released in 2005. The band is called Self Against City and the EP is titled "Take It How You Want It".

So right off the bat you can tell they come from the emo school of rock. The singer has that tenor voice that a lot of these bands have, but at least it's not sung from his nose. Actually it's a pretty decent voice and he uses it well. The music also has a very Mayday Parade feel to it, simply power cords and picked chords that come together quite nicely. Nothing too crazy or technical but it is arranged well and compliments the singer.

Interestingly i find the writing style of the lyrics refreshingly simple, especially from this genre. Yeah it's still your high school diary type subject matter, but it's not couched in obtuse metaphors or ridiculous imagery. It's actually pretty down to earth and straight to the point, you can definitely tell what the song is about without having to analyze every word for meaning

The problem I find after listening to the 6 songs on this album is that nothing really stands out for me. Nothing has a really strong hook that keeps you coming back for me, no song makes you wanna put it on repeat over and over again. As a whole the album is nice, but it's not going to wow you by any means. Also if your not really fan of this type of music, this won't really convert you. Granted the album is four years old but it still sounds like an also ran to me. It's the kind of music you listen to once and then kinda put it into the rotation. It's good in that I like it, if it comes on during shuffle or something I'm still gonna turn it up and listen, but nothing really jumps at me and says "You want to listen to more of this album!"

If your a fan of the genre or looking for something in the emo genre I recommend giving this a listen, especially since you can pick it up on itunes for 4 bucks. if your taste dies lie this way then I would suggest passing this up as there is better music out there to cut your teeth on. I think I'm gonna still Giantbomb's system and give this 3 out of 5 starts. It's a little bit of okay my friends...