2008 Woodie Awards
'The Black Swan': Same old 'Story'
Cody Kitaura
Issue date: 4/23/08 Section: Features
As far as intro tracks go, the opener on Story of the Year's new album, "The Black Swan," is pretty deceptive. "Choose Your Fate" opens with heavy, lumbering verses that vocalist Dan Marsala tears through with more intensity than anything from the band's previous albums.
Once the song comes to a screeching end, the album takes a trip to 2003 with a track that could have easily fit on the band's first studio album, "Page Avenue."
In fact, "The Black Swan" is a bit like "Page Avenue: Part 2." Never mind that Story of the Year released a much heavier album between the two; the band has returned to its proven formulas of strong, weighty guitar lines, melodic choruses and light, open harmonies. Gone are the over-the-top, spotlight-hogging guitar solos from "In the Wake of Determination," replaced with "Page Avenue's" carefully placed atmospheric guitar lines slinking around the background of songs like "Message to the World" - a song cast in the mold of "Page Avenue's" "Dive Right In."
Some of the pounding phrases between vocal lines show glimmers of the band's sophomore-album heaviness, but its return to "Page Avenue" producer John Feldmann had an obvious effect, moving the band's sound more backward than forward. The only risk taken here seems to be how close the band wanted to come to its 2003 sound.
But there is a reason the band's 2003 offering went gold and the 2005 followup received few accolades. The formula the band follows here works. The careful balance of light, melodic choruses with thick, driving guitar lines can appeal to listeners looking for both pop sensibilities and hard rock rhythms.
The lyrical content of "The Black Swan" doesn't break any new ground, either. Although the band tries its hand at global political commentary (complete with sampled clips of President George W. Bush), the cryptic, clichéd lyrics keep all but a few lines from being effective. One of the worst offenders is the catchy but formulaic "Tell Me (PAC)," with predictable imagery like, "We are the fallen / We are the light inside of the fire below / We are the broken / We are the rising tide and the undertow."
And in case the band's foggy messages denouncing nationalism and war aren't conveyed clearly enough, the album spells it out with a sampled passage from the audio version of astronomer Carl Sagan's 1994 book "The Pale Blue Dot," a work underscoring the insignificance of the Earth in the grand scheme of the universe.
In the right context, Sagan's deadpan delivery could have a profound effect, but as a short, seemingly out-of-place interlude here, the clip is too easy to overlook as an attempt to include an arbitrary recording of someone who sounds important or overly dramatic.
Story of the Year has always been about driving, high-energy sing-alongs, and "The Black Swan's" standout is "We Are Not Gonna Make It," a relentless teenage anthem of forbidden love.
Another standout from the album is "Terrified," a gentler, more emotional version of "Page Avenue's" "Anthem of Our Dying Day." The song is personal and exposed, but there's only one problem - a problem that plagues most of "The Black Swan" - it sounds five years too late.
Cody Kitaura can be reached at ckitaura@statehornet.com
Once the song comes to a screeching end, the album takes a trip to 2003 with a track that could have easily fit on the band's first studio album, "Page Avenue."
In fact, "The Black Swan" is a bit like "Page Avenue: Part 2." Never mind that Story of the Year released a much heavier album between the two; the band has returned to its proven formulas of strong, weighty guitar lines, melodic choruses and light, open harmonies. Gone are the over-the-top, spotlight-hogging guitar solos from "In the Wake of Determination," replaced with "Page Avenue's" carefully placed atmospheric guitar lines slinking around the background of songs like "Message to the World" - a song cast in the mold of "Page Avenue's" "Dive Right In."
Some of the pounding phrases between vocal lines show glimmers of the band's sophomore-album heaviness, but its return to "Page Avenue" producer John Feldmann had an obvious effect, moving the band's sound more backward than forward. The only risk taken here seems to be how close the band wanted to come to its 2003 sound.
But there is a reason the band's 2003 offering went gold and the 2005 followup received few accolades. The formula the band follows here works. The careful balance of light, melodic choruses with thick, driving guitar lines can appeal to listeners looking for both pop sensibilities and hard rock rhythms.
The lyrical content of "The Black Swan" doesn't break any new ground, either. Although the band tries its hand at global political commentary (complete with sampled clips of President George W. Bush), the cryptic, clichéd lyrics keep all but a few lines from being effective. One of the worst offenders is the catchy but formulaic "Tell Me (PAC)," with predictable imagery like, "We are the fallen / We are the light inside of the fire below / We are the broken / We are the rising tide and the undertow."
And in case the band's foggy messages denouncing nationalism and war aren't conveyed clearly enough, the album spells it out with a sampled passage from the audio version of astronomer Carl Sagan's 1994 book "The Pale Blue Dot," a work underscoring the insignificance of the Earth in the grand scheme of the universe.
In the right context, Sagan's deadpan delivery could have a profound effect, but as a short, seemingly out-of-place interlude here, the clip is too easy to overlook as an attempt to include an arbitrary recording of someone who sounds important or overly dramatic.
Story of the Year has always been about driving, high-energy sing-alongs, and "The Black Swan's" standout is "We Are Not Gonna Make It," a relentless teenage anthem of forbidden love.
Another standout from the album is "Terrified," a gentler, more emotional version of "Page Avenue's" "Anthem of Our Dying Day." The song is personal and exposed, but there's only one problem - a problem that plagues most of "The Black Swan" - it sounds five years too late.
Cody Kitaura can be reached at ckitaura@statehornet.com
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