And now, what we’ve all been waiting for! It’s time for the
album review which will hopefully give you a good idea of what to expect from
these guys. Now, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t agree with the numerous awards
for the quality of their vocalist. But a band isn’t all vocals; it’s made up of
different parts. And these four guys have all those parts covered completely.
Upon listening to the first couple of singles, “Save Me From Me” and “Crazy”, I
was impressed. I tried taking a deeper look at each of the album’s songs, but
we’ll start with these two because they’re really out there, what with Crazy on
radio stations across the country and Save Me From Me being popular on
iTunes.
Save Me From Me is a song
that starts off slow with heart-broken lyrics trying to convince the singer they
need nothing anymore, but he obviously knows he needs someone to save him from
himself. Mid-song, an accompaniment background to the piano comes in and the
song becomes a powerful statement about how strong the narrator is—strong enough
to ask for help at the end of the day. Then we take a look at Crazy. Oh, what can I say about this song. It relates
so closely to me that since putting it on my iPod it’s gotten 53 plays and I
listen to it almost completely through my writing time. Outside the second
chorus rest the lyrics, “I don’t want to stay awake. I don’t want to pay for
your mistakes, but you leave me no choice again.” These two songs should both be
on the radio right now. Everyone should be listening to this instead of the
overdone, cookie-cutter pop we hear on air. Compare Save Me From Me to Lady
Antebellum’s Need You Now and I’m sure both
songs have similarities only the former is something that is genuinely new.
Another song I’d really like to hear more often is the
bumpin’, catchy story of the girl Dancing With Her Eyes Closed. At the Kiss 108 Concert,
I didn’t even realize this was Mission Hill, but I was out of my seat and
dancing like an idiot. It’s a much unexpected candidate for a dance song, but
the beat is for bouncing and the lyrics are about the girl with her “blonde
hair” and “t-shirt too tight.” As the chorus says, “Every time she sighs
something in me dies. She knows how every song in the world goes. Everyone
watches her dancing with her eyes closed.” We all know the secretly-hollow girl
that drowns in the music. This song is about her.
Then we get to Down With Young
Love. This is one of the more rock-feel songs on the album and I
honestly picture this song in a movie and connected it momentarily to John
Tucker Must Die. This song is filled with both angst and lovesickness dripping
from the vocals and lyrics. From there we’ll go to Its
Only Love. This song is energetic and has a cynical view on love. The
conversation is the man telling his woman, “I can feel the aching in
your veins. Your words and whispers choke; I’m the razor in your throat. Nothing
takes the edge off the pain.” He also mentions that “it only kills you for a
while.” Yeah! I liked this a lot, too. A lot of you guys out there should be
able to relate to this song. Then we have the crooning that comes with the
sensitive, touching, refusal to let go of the girl that’s asking the singer to
be grown up. Yet he still promises to be there for her through whatever she
needs. That’s what happens in Jen. It’s a total
contrast to earlier track, Down With Young Love in both style and lyrics.
Ah, Beautiful Addiction. I
had a hard time figuring out anything about this one. I’m relatively sure this
is the tale of a girl that’s overreacting and wants so much from this man, and
he doesn’t seem to ask anything in return, but at some point he just cannot take anymore no matter how much he loves her. She’s his
“beautiful addiction” because he
loves her so much and tortures himself over her, but he doesn’t realize that she
does the same things for him. And so, the song has neither understanding what
the other does for them so they hide what they’re really feeling. It wasn’t my
favorite and isn’t the best showcase of Mission Hill’s talent and potential, but
it’s still a good time. A song that I find myself tying to this one- for reasons
unbeknownst to even me –is the saddening (yet the narrator seems angry and
hollow at the same time) This Town. It’s a song
filled with shame, longing, hate, and depression. “Your walls start to break
because I’m crashing your gates” is one of the lyrics I quoted on an AIM status
of mine once.
Another song with a two-word title is Long Time. It talks about the “long time coming” where
the narrator has been waiting to end things with this woman. She has him
“running around like a merry-go-round” (pardon me, I couldn’t catch the complete
lyric for that one) and she “never loved me and I’m tired of playing games.” I
chain this song to This Town in style as they are both rock ballads. Play this
when standing in the rain and staring at the sky. I have a feeling it could be
inspirational. Sober is another slow song.
Maybe I shouldn’t have encapsulated slow songs this close to the end of the
review. From what I heard it’s about lost love and drinking yourself even deeper
into misery even though it is pointless. Sad song, it is. Nice riff near the
end, too. It was a good touch.
And here we are with the last two songs: Back from The Dead and Forever
Anyway. We’ll start with the former of the two. The chorus is a shorter
one, but it says, “You love me, you hate me. You want me; you push me away from
your love. You burn me to ashes and leave me inside my head to find my way back
from the dead.” Its riff is after the second chorus and is placed perfectly.
This song is one of those tortured, confused-protagonist songs. There is
absolutely nothing wrong with that. Admittedly, it is
stronger than Sober and possibly Long Time, but that’s hard to say because none
of the songs are weak. Forever Anyway is a song about… well, I’m wondering if
it’s about the band themselves with the talk of being a Boston boy with “rock
and roll tattooed on his soul”. This sounds like a hometown-pride song with the
MO that they’re going to take their time because they’ve got forever anyway. I
respect this song a lot. The lyrics can sync to anyone that really loves their
home. I thought of my former home in Ohio when I heard this and it kind of
depressed me in that sense, but it’s hard to be depressed when you’re listening
to such a pleasant tune.
So I’m listening to the album as I finish writing this and
Its Only Love just came on and with the crazy upbeat cynics of this song I’ll
try to sign off in the most positive way possible. Mission Hill’s album is
top-notch. None of the songs are a bore. None
of them lack. The lyrics are honest and beautiful. The music itself is well
arranged and you can tell MH knows how to make the listener feel the sound. The vocals are reliable in both quality and
strength. Listening to them is probably one of the best ideas I’ve had recently.
The album comes out later this June (this month!) and if this entire article
isn’t a recommendation to purchase it, then I don’t know what is. This band is
going great places and I fully intend on following them faithfully there. Don’t
get left behind with the Taylor Swift fans that have yet to discover her voice
is mostly auto tune; don’t get stuck with the Disney singers like the Jonas
Brothers. No. Save yourself. Jump on the Mission Hill train. They’ll take you-
no matter your age -for a wildly fun ride.
Note: Upon first listen of this album,
all the songs are rock-solid. I was originally to post this review after that on
Wednesday June 2nd. After more than one listen,
they’re more solid than Solid Snake from Metal Gear. This album has grown on me
in the past few days and it’ll leech on you, too. This album will be a
must-purchase upon release.