Artist: Acceptance
Album: Phantoms
Label: Columbia Records
Release Date: 04/26/2005

We’re not reinventing the wheel here…it’s pop music. It’s sugary and sweet and it makes your ass shake. The Jimmy Eat World comparison is almost too obvious to make, but alas, there it is. The songs are well written, the vocals are great and the production is fantastic. But what really sets this record apart is how obvious it is that Jesus or Santa Claus or someone is looking down on this band from above. Producer/Genius, Aaron Sprinkle, makes his major label debut on Phantoms. Sprinkle was actually chosen by the BAND rather than the LABEL…an anomaly on its own. Phenomenon #2 comes when Columbia throws so much fucking promotion behind this release you would think John Lennon came back from the dead to sing back up vocals. I think next is locusts and the killing of the first born.

Is anyone else confused? On the real though, the record is good. It’s nothing groundbreaking or original, but the songs are well done and the album flows together nicely. Will this someday make it on VH1s list of Top 100 Something Of Somethings? Doubt it. But, the band has consistency. They have clearly grown as a band on this release, but I think Phantoms is just as good as the EP released by The Militia Group in 2003, Black Lines To The Battlefield. They didn’t change their sound for “The Man.” They simply continued to do what they have been doing for years- rock your ass without stepping on your toes. The lack of label interference has me somewhat creeped out, like the Apocalypse is nigh; But once I was able to set aside the logo on the back of the cd, I really did enjoy the album. I would even go so far as to say it is worth purchasing. *gasp*

http://www.myspace.com/acceptance