US-style heavy rockers A are actually from this side of the pond, but you wouldn’t think it when greeted by whiny angst-ridden American vocals laid down over surf-guitar skate punk riffing, which sums up the first two tracks, album single ‘Rush Song’ and ‘Better off with Him’. Things start to get a little more realistic with tunes like ‘The Art of Making Sense', which does at least have a genuinely catchy rock riff cutting through it, but even so it’s been done before by countless groups, while uncharismatic vocals do little to rescue lame-duck tunes like ‘Someone Else’ and the uninspiring chorus on ‘Second Coming’. Fortunately for A they begin to up the ante at last with punk/metal scorcher ‘Wake Up’, and as a consequence, so do we, finding its in-yer-face riffing hard to turn down, but even so, it’s still pretty much a case of hard rock by numbers that anyone over the age of 16 will find difficult to relate to without a wry smile.
‘Black Hole’ doesn’t quite send them there, but it leaves A teetering on the brink, doing little to mark a departure from what has become a formulaic trans-Atlantic sound over the past couple of decades. The band briefly display that they are capable of better things with the deftly engaging chorus of ‘Hey’, and this is undeniably the softest song on the album; their token slow number. It’s too bad A don’t do more like this, because there is precious little else on this album to break the mould.
True, if you are reading this before knocking off work to go and hit the ramps on your skateboard or surf the waves before the sun sets, it’s probably gonna float your boat, as it packs all the adrenaline you’d expect a bunch of tight, energetic players like this to muster. But if you like a bit of subtlety and feel thrown into your rock ‘n’ roll, give this a wide berth as you head down to your local for a few jars.
