May 9, 2018

THE ROCKET - "ANOTHER REASON NOT TO FEAR THE SKY" ALBUM REVIEW

"Houston, we have liftoff"...

...Wrote synth driven pop-punk group THE ROCKET on; 4/26/18, the day their album, "ANOTHER REASON NOT TO FEAR THE SKY" blasted into the airwaves, worldwide. With the help of Marc McClusky (Weezer, Motion City Soundtrack) and Josh and Justin of Motion City Soundtrack, the team crafted this 11 (or 13 deluxe) track album.

If you're familiar with my posts, you'll know that I'm a huge sucker to a few things, 2 and 3 part harmony, 80's synth, and sometimes if the shoe fits the foot without being too overbearing, showmanship.

They embody all 3 of those qualities. THE ROCKET, first off, has more of a theme and identity to their band rather than a "gimmick" as some bands do to define themselves. Their sound takes me back to the "Even If It Kills Me" years of MCS (which is one of my favorite albums ever) with the MOOG-ey synth tracks, stop break patterned melodies and sick 2-3 part harmony lines, reminiscent of awesome hair metal bands of the 80's (shit I grew up on) combined with their ability to combine it with punchy hooks, and melodic pop-punk lyrics.

Another Reason Not To Fear The Sky - The Rocket

ANOTHER REASON NOT TO FEAR THE SKY from front the back gives me the feeling like it's the soundtrack to an epic transient 80's sci-fi teen movie, like Back to the Future or something (favorite.) It's new, refreshing, but at the same time it's still a classic that I don't quite know the plot to with a new discovery that I overlooked before.

In their newest single LOST AT SEA all qualities of the band shine bright as fuck from the first images depicting a rocket taking off and a kid in a spacesuit, ie (the identity I was talking about.)

Drums and guitar set you up for a synth explosion of an intro, and the verse pans off letting the lyrics shine. All of the choruses explode into a 3 part harmony and main riff explode with synth. The stop break pierce through and unveil the band's harmonies while the small bridge and synth solo sound like a throwback to an 80's style tune. For some reason, this song really reminds me of AhHa's Take On Me (which I love BTW).

LOST AT SEA

FAVORITE TRACKS

LOST AT SEA

CRASH

HEY CHARLOTTE

SHADOW

All 11 songs are unique in their own way, all with an amazing synth as the ambience of the track. I've had to have listened to LOST AT SEA 20+ times, CRASH is reminiscent of my own band's style so I'm in love with that song with it's double stop drum beats, harmonies and harmonizing vocal/synth melodies. A tune like HEY CHARLOTTE shows the band's diversity, by mixing it up with the variation hardcore punk beats, major/minor chords all over a cool sawtooth synth patch, singing about being drunk. SHADOW LINK (Not the one from Zelda)An awesome highlight of the album was hearing Justin Pierre and Joshua Cain of Motion City Soundtrack on SHADOW. The tune to me felt like MCS blasted off into THE ROCKET's world and cast their "shadow" over the band's tastes and vision while letting The Rocket be themselves and not be too overbearing.