Review

Houston, we have a problem. While Tom Hanks surely wasn’t referring to A Collection of Short Stories, he’s right nonetheless. Short Stories is nothing we haven’t heard before, and done even better by the artists it mimics.

“Exit, Emergency” has an uncanny resemblance to Motion City Soundtrack on their I Am the Movie album, “Elephant and Castle” bears a strong resemblance to all things Mest, “Amtrak Is For Lovers” runs frighteningly close to a melodramatic Simple Plan ballad, “High Rise” seems to be a page out of a No Motiv book when they created “Independence Day,” and sadly, the list goes on.

In most cases, it’s the distinction that the lead vocalist makes that creates a standout sound for the band, but singer Chitty doesn’t have much range and never strays far from his almost-monotone style. And while we’re being honest, the backing instrumentation is just average; any band out these days can throw out a catchy hook and bring it together with boy misses and/or hates girl lyrics. You just get the sense something creative is seriously missing from this album when it's all said and done.

A Collection of Short Stories might have been better suited with a title A Collection of Everyone Else’s Work. Let’s face it, this genre is starting to get really old. We could use some variation from the norm, not another watered down version of it.

Review by Jason Schleweis

2 out of 5