A Change Of Pace - Prepare The Masses [album]

August 28, 2006, 11:07 PM

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Upon the into to the first track of this CD, my thought was that I may be listening to a band who cited Thrice as a main inspiration and this may turn out to be other than the expected generic American pop-punk band; sadly I was mistaken. Perhaps my opening summation is a little hard on the band, they have put together a good collection of songs, with enough good moments to almost make you forget the bad; almost.

It all starts off with a sort of marching beat in the background with some very distant sounding, chanting vocals; this is the title track, ‘Prepare The Masses’, which sums up my immediate disappointment with this band. There’s a big front and a misleading idea that they could be politically inspired, which falters. It would at least add some comfort to having to listen to these tracks if A Change Of Pace were at least different; or putting forward a strong belief, as the cover and song titles had me believe at a glance. The chorus is a bit weak, though catchy, and it does leave me wondering how my impression of this band was so far off the mark, they play it safe throughout.

The element of safety is confirmed and highlighted in the second and third tracks ‘How To Rape A Country’ and ‘I’m Alive.’ ‘I’m Alive’ starts to indicate a more poppy turn in the direction of the CD, and it’s nice to see the band adhering to face value and offering a nice simple pop-punk song, with no preconceptions of being anything more. ‘Shoot From The Hip’ leaves a bit to be desired, the band are trying to make the songs sound different but aren’t really adding their own spice to different ideas until the similarly catchy chorus comes about. They do seem to have a strength where salvaging a mediocre song with a catchy chorus, but it’s not really enough to make any of this acceptable.

The next two songs, ‘Weekend Warriors’, and ‘White Lines and Lipstick’ leave more than a little to be desired. But, as reliable as a rainy day in winter, the choruses return and are beginning to make everything feel a little one dimensional. Fortunately, salvation comes in the way of ‘A Song The World Can Sing Aloud’, this does exactly what it promises and provides yet another nice pop-punk song that doesn’t make any attempt at being anything more, something this band should definitely stick to, writing radio friendly songs seems to be their biggest strength, and they ought to focus more on this aspect and produce songs which people will literally not be able to shift from their heads for weeks, or until the next track, there are indications of quality here, just a little few and far between. ‘Take Care’ begins the winding down sequence of the album, this is where the band seems to be growing stronger; this is another song which is embracing the catchiness the band can produce.

‘War In Your Bedroom’ is where things go a little astray; the verse sounds a little too much like a poor imitation of Fall Out Boy; and it really does them no favours. By now I’ve heard enough of A Change Of Pace to have a formulated opinion which will be difficult to change. The final three tracks served for a mixed opinion and provoke a mixed reaction. ‘I Wanna Be Your Rock & Roll’ adds nothing to my opinion, and has a derogatory effect if anything. ‘Recipe For Disaster’ joins ‘I’m Alive’ and ‘A Song The World Can Sing Out Loud’ in being one of the better on offer, where the band fully embraces the songs they can write well, the approach may be dated, but they should at least stick to what they do best.

I would say I was surprised to hear a slow burner for the closing song, I didn’t really expect it from this band, but then again, fast and loud bands often like to bring things down a notch at some point. As it goes, closing track ‘Safe and Sound in Phone Lines’ is a very nice acoustically inspired song (shame about the name). It’s one of those songs that can convince you the whole album was brilliant purely because of the feeling it leaves behind. Sadly, it’s not convincing enough to pull this album off. The album is average at best, when the band focus on the catchier songs they have the scope to succeed, far too often here they’ve tried to be a little different and fallen flat on their faces; until the salvation of a chorus which has already been heard a thousand times before (mostly on this one CD). It leaves me a little disappointed in myself that I was fooled by the packaging and song names into thinking this band could offer a little more to think about. To put it simply, if you’re looking for the next band with a catchy hook in their choruses that you can sing along to; these are your guys. If you seek substance, look elsewhere.

Kevin Barnes

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