Emotionalpunk.com
Media Review
Music Quality: 3.0
Production: 5.5
Originality: 1.0
Tracklisting
2. Bunce
3. I'll Run
4. High Hopes In Velvet Ropes
5. That 70's Song
6. Take My Hand
7. Risky Business
8. I'm A Wonder
9. Zzzz
10. Vegas Nights
11. Can You Keep A Secret?
12. This City Is Contagious
Fueled by Ramen records has somewhat of a reputation for being a real launching pad for bands. Gym Class Heroes, Paramore and, of course, Fall Out Boy are among the alums. They are a label that has put out hit after hit after hit. Then along comes Las Vegas, Nevada’s The Cab. This group of extremely young kids got the Ryan Ross hook-up and the band signed to Fueled by Ramen/Decaydance when they were barely a year and a half old. Before they had even released any real material the band was listed on Blender Magazine’s Hot Report and with guest vocals from FBR’s two biggest acts (Patrick Stump and Brandon Urie) their full-length debut, Whisper War, was going to be massive, right?
Wrong.
Whisper is a nice debut release from some inexperienced, albeit young, kids who have really hit the jackpot. Not only have they signed to one of the most influential labels in independent music, they have a built in fan base simply by word of mouth credibility of FBR. But it sounds like these kids have become the indie world’s Maroon 5. With their jazzy guitar riffs and off-beat drumming, the Cab have put together an album that isn’t only trite and repetitive but oddly stale in a dancy-pop punk world.
Running the gamut from not writing some of their own music (“One of THOSE Nights”) to terrible songs that the band did write (“That 70s Song”), it seems like this band is ripe for radio play on top 40 stations but it seems like they try too hard fuse the verbiage of Fall Out Boy with the musicianship of Maroon 5 and it just comes off as amateur.
The band’s second single, “Bounce,” singer Alex DeLeon channel’s the soul of Pete Wentz for one second then Adam Levine the next. “Liars turn me on/ Bed spread bandit since '89/ You wear your heart on your sleeve/ And threw mine to the sky/ Bounce, bounce baby, bounce back to me you don’t need this/ Bounce, bounce baby, bounce back to me.” It would be a nice feat if it didn’t come off so corny and formulaic. But it is those two words that really epitomize Whisper.
Whisper is not the release that it should have been. It comes off just as juvenile as the performers and simplistic enough to probably sell a couple hundred records. Move over Jonas Brothers. The Cab is on your heels.