Spring Break
Gym Class Heroes The Quilt album is patchy, promising
Justin Pacheco
Issue date: 10/8/08 Section: Entertainment
10/08/08 - Take hip-hop, add some rock, and sprinkle in a bit of emo and you have a wonderfully fun band named Gym Class Heroes. All these genres that make up its unique sound are in full force on its new album, The Quilt.
The album starts off particularly strong, with the first five tracks arguably being the five best.
The first track "Guilty as Charged" is a lament about the lead singer Travis McCoy's apparent legal troubles and dissatisfaction with some media criticism. The song also features UK singer Estelle singing the catchy chorus. Unfortunately the song also has some pretty lame lines by McCoy such as, "Guilty on all charges for the dopest album of the year".
The introspective band doesn't do self-aggrandizement very well.
The track "Drk Text Rmeo" returns to Gym Class Heroes' bread and butter: sad songs about love and songs about modern tech fads. For another example see "New Friend Request" from As Cruel as School Children.
The next track "Peach Sign/Index Down" is the first single from the album and features a verse by Busta Rhymes. Busta Rhymes' verse works surprisingly well with Gym Class Heroes' sound, most likely because it's a fairly angry track, and Busta Rhymes always sounds pissed off.
The fourth track is "Like Father, Like Son" which is a sappy slow song about childhood and, I'm assuming, McCoy's father. The song shows that Gym Class Heroes can write about more substantial topics than MySpace and text messages, though the song does have a random shout out to He-Man and Castle Greyskull.
"Blinded By the Sun" is solid mid-tempo track with a little bit of a reggae influence, but the track is most notable for its use of the chorus from Corey Hart's "Sunglasses at Night," this time sung by Patrick Stump at one point.
The songs "Cookie Jar" and "Live Forever (Fly with Me)" show Gym Class playing songs in a true R&B style for the first time. Neither of these songs would seem out of place on Usher album. The songs are different from the typical Gym Class fare, but retain the band's gift for catchy pop hooks.
Two tracks- "Live A Little" and "No Place to Run"- have no rapping and are just standard rock songs. Both are solid songs, but neither sound like something by Gym Class Heroes.
The album ends of a strong note with "Coming Clean." This is the one track that seems to combine all the genres Gym Class Heroes try to incorporate in their music into one cohesive song.
The lack of cohesiveness is the only real complaint I have with The Quilt. The album seems like a collection of unrelated singles. The album does not really maintain a set feeling throughout, but that is not much of a problem when the individual songs excel as much as they do here.
The album starts off particularly strong, with the first five tracks arguably being the five best.
The first track "Guilty as Charged" is a lament about the lead singer Travis McCoy's apparent legal troubles and dissatisfaction with some media criticism. The song also features UK singer Estelle singing the catchy chorus. Unfortunately the song also has some pretty lame lines by McCoy such as, "Guilty on all charges for the dopest album of the year".
The introspective band doesn't do self-aggrandizement very well.
The track "Drk Text Rmeo" returns to Gym Class Heroes' bread and butter: sad songs about love and songs about modern tech fads. For another example see "New Friend Request" from As Cruel as School Children.
The next track "Peach Sign/Index Down" is the first single from the album and features a verse by Busta Rhymes. Busta Rhymes' verse works surprisingly well with Gym Class Heroes' sound, most likely because it's a fairly angry track, and Busta Rhymes always sounds pissed off.
The fourth track is "Like Father, Like Son" which is a sappy slow song about childhood and, I'm assuming, McCoy's father. The song shows that Gym Class Heroes can write about more substantial topics than MySpace and text messages, though the song does have a random shout out to He-Man and Castle Greyskull.
"Blinded By the Sun" is solid mid-tempo track with a little bit of a reggae influence, but the track is most notable for its use of the chorus from Corey Hart's "Sunglasses at Night," this time sung by Patrick Stump at one point.
The songs "Cookie Jar" and "Live Forever (Fly with Me)" show Gym Class playing songs in a true R&B style for the first time. Neither of these songs would seem out of place on Usher album. The songs are different from the typical Gym Class fare, but retain the band's gift for catchy pop hooks.
Two tracks- "Live A Little" and "No Place to Run"- have no rapping and are just standard rock songs. Both are solid songs, but neither sound like something by Gym Class Heroes.
The album ends of a strong note with "Coming Clean." This is the one track that seems to combine all the genres Gym Class Heroes try to incorporate in their music into one cohesive song.
The lack of cohesiveness is the only real complaint I have with The Quilt. The album seems like a collection of unrelated singles. The album does not really maintain a set feeling throughout, but that is not much of a problem when the individual songs excel as much as they do here.
