Conditions Album Review
Conditions – Fluorescent Youth
Words by Michael Dickinson
You can pretty much sum this album up with one of the worst comments about an album.
It’s alright.
It’s not amazing, it’s not even amazingly shit it’s just average and that’s usually the worst outcome when your trying to tell people about why or why not to listen to something. But let’s give it ago.
The five piece band have enough power behind them with no less than three vocalists and two guitars plus the obligatory drums and bass. There are moments when the cacophony of sound hits you and you feel compelled to nod your head, but nothing brings you close to balls to the wall rock out. That fault probably lies at lead vocalist Brandon Roundtree’s feet. His voice carries on the tradition of Blink 182, skater punk that verges the wrong side of whiney. On ‘Natural Competition’ – a song of frustration and anger – Roundtree sounds more like a kid stamping his feet because he’s not getting his way rather than a pissed off ex venting his anger. The lyrics too come across as beyond the bands years. Metaphores such as “Youth is wasted on the young” just come across as hackneyed attempts at a world weariness whilst the band present an overly youthful sound. Perhaps if the vocals were tackled by someone with a rougher sound it would sound more plausible.
The rest of the band play fine, but again there’s that horrible middle of the road word, fine. The guitars do at times sound beautifully textured beside each other and even sound a little grimy now and then but then the rest of the track sweeps in like the tide knocking down a crumbling sand castle. On the track ‘Make Them Remember’ they complain that “Everyone seems exactly the same”. Well they’ve seem to have done fuck all to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack. And whilst musically there is nothing WRONG with the album there’s nothing that will make you sit up and take notice.
Overall, the songs hang well together to form an inoffensive but unmemorable album. If you’re into Evanescence or Blink 182 (or bands like that) you may find something to enjoy, anyone else, your probably better off treating yourself to a takeaway.
5/10
