3 years ago in the aftermath of the Indie scene created by bands like The Libertines and The Others, we were left with a series of poor copycat artists, each one promising something new the likes of which we'd never heard before but ultimately, it all sounded the same. The (I hate to say) scene that was created by bands like Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco 2 or 3 years ago is no different, the label "Emo" has come as far away from it's original origins ala At the Drive-In and Sunny Day Real Estate as possible, with the tag now fitting to bands who rely purely on squeezing as many unnecessary harmonies into each song as possible. With the release of their debut album ‘Isn’t This Supposed To Be Fun!?’, Epitaph's freshest new faces Farewell sadly prove to be no exception.

From the first wail of vocalist Marshall Davies on opening track ‘Start It Up’ it’s pretty obvious that we’re not going to be hearing anything very original over the next 13 songs. For what they are most of the songs aren’t bad, you can’t help but tap your foot along to the infectious riff of “First One On The Blog” and it’s pretty hard to deny the sing a long quality of tunes such as “War” and “September Brought The Fall”, it’s just for those of us already far too familiar with a sound that in all honesty is about 3 years out of date, it just sounds a little too standard and somewhat clichéd. It’s one thing to be influenced by your peers but it’s another to just flat out rob their sound and if your already familiar with Fall Out Boy’s ‘Take It To Your Grave’ and anything from the Cobra Starship back catalogue then you will see that this is just plain robbery. The inclusion of synths and elements of electronica are interesting and quite well executed at times providing a humble compromise to the ever-present harmonics of Davies. I just wish this band didn’t claim so insistently that they have created something new when in fact they haven’t, obviously it would be wrong for a band to promote themselves by saying “OK we sound like everyone else but if you like so and so you might like us” but by the time you’ve reached the end of “ITSTBF!?” you can’t help but think ‘yeah, if they’d said that instead of claiming to be the best thing since sliced bread then I might’ve had a little bit more respect for them’.

In it’s entirety this is NOT a bad record, it would be convenient if the songs were poorly structured and badly recorded but the production is brilliant and the tracks are all very well polished, sadly for those of us already familiar with the aforementioned bands, it’s nothing new and ultimately quite annoying.