American Bang: Album Review 010

This Nashville group’s 2010 full length debut is not the kind of album that is going to blow your hair back. The tone of that last sentence will echo through the rest of the review, so get ready for a poor review.

Let’s start with this: I really hope the guys in this band are rude to waitresses or don’t believe in evolution or something, because I would hate to give a review like this to a bunch of stellar dudes.

How would you describe what this band sounds like? If you were me, you might say: “It sounds like the singer of the Kings of Leon is fronting a classic-rock-pop-country band who were really psyched when they heard the new Nickelback album...”. For me, this is not something someone would say about a promising new band. Quite the opposite.

I think the first song on the album, ‘Whiskey Walk’, really set the tone for the rest of the album. On top of being generally nonplussed about the song so far, before it had finished the singer belted out a “yeooow!” which, to be perfectly honest, didn’t seem to have his heart in it. I’m not sure how many people would agree with me, but that’s the sort of noise that should be saved for special occasions...like fine china. This scream, that demands both passion and balls, did not deliver.

The lyrics were not the bands strong point. Now, I’m not going to sit here and use a word like “contrived” like some white liberal-arts college guy who would say “ciao”, but I can settle for “unimaginative”. It’s not that I don’t believe this guy has ever fallen in love, but he seems to have a real issue with rehashing and sharing some of those feelings. Take the song ‘Angels’, where we are presumably hearing the story of a young lady growing up...or multiple ladies who are different ages or something. In a frenzy of emotion these women express their frustrations, as the singer relates in the chorus, saying “...angels are comin’ to save me...so take me away on your jet plane...take me around the world...’aint that what angels do?”. On top of being replete with confusion during “Angels”, the rest of the lyrics and I just did not have any chemistry.

I would make more specific references to the middle and end of the album, but to be honest it was like looking at leftover food when you are really full and it just looks unappealing.
Since my review of the album tended to be less positive than negative, I have decided to end the review on a happy note. Here are some nice things about the band American Bang:

-They have charming reviews of food and drinks on their website.
-They have two music videos and haven’t even released a full length album yet. This leads me to the conclusion that they are probably making enough money to get out of DUI charges and ride seadoos.

-In the song “Wild and Young” you can hear the singer’s southern drawl very clearly 31 seconds in, with the pronunciation of the word “door”. It is adorable.

www.myspace.com/americanbang
www.americanbangrock.com
www.facebook.com/americanbang
http://twitter.com/americanbang
iTunes Pre-order link: CLICK HERE!

Reviewed By.
Jordan MacNeil aka "The Machine"