Rating: 1/5
For Fans of: Crossfade, tuned-down Three Days Grace, 3 Doors Down
Tracks to Download: “Your Kind,” “Are U Awake”
Apparently no one told Linwood that pseudo-heavy, radio-friendly rock was so 2003. These poor guys have been playing together for nearly 15 years, but on their first album, the Cleveland, MS musicians betray their age. This isn’t an ageist rant, no one can say that Keith Richards or Bruce Springsteen don’t still have bite, but the gents on Linwood sound like the music your dad would make if he were trying to be trendy hadn’t listened to anything more current than Breaking Benjamin.
The album’s just boring, plain and simple. Though frontman Bo Lindsey sounds a little bit like Michael Stipe and delivers moments of impassioned singing, they are not enough to carry the band. The biggest misses on the album are the moments in which Lindsey drops out. The lyrically-focused band flounders, unsure of what to do without vocals. They just keep on playing their back-up parts, with no one jumping in to solo or take over the melody in any way.
Those back-ups, by the way, will eventually make you want to pull your hair out, exposed or not. Though the rhythm section is as solid as a metronome, you’ll be disappointed when you figure out that could produce the same effect by just clapping along yourself. Barry Bays’ bass work rarely strays from simple root plucking, and the band might as well have saved their time and recorded one take of drummer Rick Shelton and just played it over all the tracks.
Scott Coopwood, however, is the biggest disappointment, because he actually sounds promising. His support is typically solid, he just gets stuck in these ruts and refuses to take a chance with the melody or give himself a chance to rock out with a solo or by varying each song’s guitar line, even a little.
“Burn Effect” spells bad news for the band’s Cleveland, MS-based label Waxsaw Records. As the label’s first record, this album needs to succeed if the indie company (founded Coopwood) is to stay afloat. And a pox on Linwood if they sink Waxsaw, because I, for one, need them to stick around so they can produce material from my new favoritely named band, Diesel Weasel.
this is actually a prettty good album. I heard it on a college radio station and then bought it from itunes. beats the hell outta the pop crap on the radio these days. The dude who wrote this crappy review is more than likely a belieber anyway so I wouldnt judge the band by his opinion.