Nightmare Of You - 'Nightmare Of You' (Bevonshire) Released 13/09/05

The self titled debut album by Nightmare of You seems firmly placed to slip into the Killers spotlight while they come up with something to top the last albums sales. The name may suggest something that ultimately should sound heavier and the pink flowery album cover even hints at a slice of irony but it would be hard pressed to find anything other than made for radio bubbly pop rock with this offering. 

Granted singer Brandon Reilly sounds like a cross between Matt Skiba (Alkaline Trio) and Billy Joe (It’s also worth noting that he seems to have modelled his whole look on the Green Day maestro, a fact which will not go unnoticed by all of the young emo girls out there) but that’s where the similarities end.

‘The Days Go By Oh So Slow’ has a distinctly summer feel in much the same way as The Killers do.  You would be forgiven for believing that this song is going to be an ode to teenage angst but instead it delivers a mellow love song with a polished guitars and vocals.  ‘In The Bathroom Is Where I Want You’ begins with a 80’s keyboard riff, which suggests at the bands influences and 'Dear Scene, I Wish I Were Deaf', could easily be confused with a chart based sugar coated song by the likes of Sons of Dork!   (With the whoa whoa whoa’s and the argh argh argh’s which should delivered straight back to the 80’s)  By this track it becomes apparent that the band are aiming for maximum MTV exposure.

They band show they have some lyrical diversity on ‘Thumbelina’, where they sing about sexual deviance and young experiences and attempt to confront the issues of their audience; However, with ‘My Name is Trouble’ it seems that the band have delivered everything that they have and the rest of the album is going to be peppered with the same pop tunes. But then the chilled ‘Marry Me’ comes along and Nightmare of You live up to some of the hype they have received.  If the whole album was like this song it probably wouldn’t work but the country influenced song shows that the band has something more to offer, which could keep people interested for a while longer.