Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Dead Girls Ruin Everything - What a Perfect Ending CD Review

With a name like Dead Girls Ruin Everything, it’s easy to imagine them as either a cookie cutter metalcore band or a cheesy pop-punk group. Personally, I guessed the former, but it turns out they’re more of the latter. Formed by members of the now defunct bands Podstar and Ultimate Fakebook, Dead Girls are a throwback to the 90’s pop-rock genre. Had these four guys come together in that era, you’d have been hearing them spoken about in same sentences with bands such as Sugar, The Posies, and Teenage Fanclub.

There is definitely a modern edge to Dead Girls’ brand of updated 90’s pop-rock, but there is no doubt where their main influences lie. What gives this release a more modern edge is the slight, yet noticeable, emo and pop-punk stylings that litter the cd. As much as you can hear Sugar in most of their songs, you can also hear pieces of Jimmy Eat World strew about, most notably on the title track. It is this mixture of modernity and an appreciation of the past that gives What a Perfect Ending the interesting attraction that it possesses.

From the onset, it is quite apparent that there are no agendas being forwarded, no big questions being tackled, no high profile concepts being explored, and nothing overly complicated being undertaken by Dead Girls. Instead you’ll simply nod along to the 12 tracks of light-hearted, yet not saccharinely sweet, modern emo-pop-rock. There is a heavy emphasis on the the easy going and laid back nature of the band, which comes in contrast to the, at times, heavily serious independent rock scene of today.

Many of the songs, such as “Had It with You”, are written in a somewhat Midtown-esque nature in that the members of the band know exactly what they are shooting for and pull it off with the maturity of a band that realizes what their identity is, instead of turning to the album creation process as a step to finding an identity.

Dead Girls Ruin Everything are playing within the confines of a genre that hasn’t seen a whole heck of a lot of radio play in a few years’ time and which might not be all that popular with the general musical populace, but it’d sure be hard to find another band right now that could emulate Sugar’s trademark sound better than these guys. If you’ve read this far, you know you want to take a trip back to when pop-rock was all the rage, not just on college radio, but on the radio period with What a Perfect Ending, so just do it. Buy this CD and enjoy a brief nostalgic indulgence.

No comments: