Customer Reviews

Sonic Boom

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I came across this band by accident, stumbling onto their last CD - Eyewitness. By the fourth track, they were officially my favorite band. If you loved Eyewitness as much as I did, you'll be happy with the band's most recent CD - Sonic Boom. The songs Beat by Beat, Shockwave, & Gravity are great no-nonsense rock songs. The ballad Three Wishes is sure to please. And track 5, Got Shot Down, absolutely RULES - you won't be able to get it out of your head. It is trademark Shades Apart - high energy and raw passion combined with great musicianship, clever lyrics, and a catchy tune. So if you're like me and can't fathom why Eyewitness wasn't a platinum album, you'll love Sonic Boom. And if you never heard Eyewitness, then for Pete's sake buy both CD's - you won't regret it.

I came across this band totally by accident, stumbling across their last CD - Eyewitness. Four tracks in, they had become my favorite band. If you haven't heard Eyewitness, for pete's sake buy the darn thing. And if you loved Eyewitness as much as I did, you have to pick up their new CD - Sonic Boom. The songs Beat by Beat & Shockwave are great no-nonsense rock tunes, and the ballad Three Wishes is sure to please. Track 5, Got Shotdown, absolutely RULES - you won't be able to get it out of your mind. I'm still exploring some of the later tracks, but the first half of the album alone is worth every penny. At first glance, the sound is trademark Shades Apart - driven and raw passion. But like Eyewitness, after listening to each track a second time you enter a world of subtlety, humor, and great musicianship. Lead singer/lead guitarist Mark plays and sings with so much evident passion and emotion - he definitely deserves to be ranked with the best. Bass player Kevin shows a command of style and form that is rare in a rock band. And Ed's drumming is more fantastic than ever. If you're like me, and still can't understand why Eyewitness wasn't a platinum album, then you have to buy this CD. Shades Apart - the best band you never heard of.

All I can say is WOW! I bought this album with high expectations, and they were exceeded. From song one, the tone was set. Get ready to listen to rock the way it should be: volume UP, and your head a baggin'! Beat by Beat is my favorite song on this cd, so if you dont like that one, then you wont like this cd.

Sonic Boom hasn't left my CD player since I bought it. I even bought three copies--so I could listen to it in the car, in the house AND at work! It's incredible--high-energy and melodic at the same time, with great rhythms, unforgettable hooks and intense vocals that have undeniable, raw appeal. You can't really compare it to anything else out there, or even to their last album, Eyewitness. The recording is totally different . . . a lot less processed. No special effects, no additional instruments, nothing synthetic. Listening to this CD is really the closest thing to watching them live! The real rockers are Conspiracy, Beat by Beat and Shockwave, and Got Shot Down (my favorite) will get seriously stuck in your head. Gravity has a really good groove. A couple unique surprises are Rebel Teenager from Mars (a cool, kind of "kitchy" 50's sendoff) and Drive All Night (a semi-acoustic, guitar-driven, western-style ballad). Shades Apart have managed (again!) to come up with an excellent collection of tunes that defy definition and surpass everything currently on the radio. Sonic Boom is definitely a keeper!

Without a doubt I believe that Shades Apart is one of the most underrated pop-punk, power pop, emo, rock bands to ever grace the face of the earth. I feel that they're a great band because they just have the whole thing balanced out. The guitarist/lead singer Mark writes some of the punchiest hooks and some of the best mini-solos that I've ever heard on a guitar. He's proven the genre to be a lot more sophisticated by adding some more complexity to the modern day drone of power chord after power chord. His solos are some of the most well engineered (from a guitarists point of view) and they're short and humble. When it comes to the complexity of his melodies he really knows how to balance out the jarring chords with the riffs and perhaps his style of writing has influenced mine more than anybody else has. Mark's ability with the written word is also quite captivating. He reflects a whole lifestyle in his writing and brings it all together with some slick phrasing. Some of the parts he plays and sings simultaneously are simply mind blowing. Kevin also adds a great deal of interest to the scene by making some pretty complex basslines to the music which gives the music more depth. He's talented and versatile, doing his rock thing (Shockwave) or doing his skankable raggae inspired groove (Got Shot Down). Ed just seals the package with some killer drum work, making some cool use of paila (wood block sounding) technique on songs such as "Rebel Teenager from Mars" and "Behind the Wheel" They're my favorite music group for those reasons and Sonic Boom fortunately does not shroud their talents. Unfortunately, I just find this to be an awkward sounding change from a lot of their old stuff. Since the tracks on "Sonic Boom" are slowed down a couple notches from some previous efforts such as "Save It" it allows people to really appreciate the talents of the members without having them pass at some blinding speed going unnoticed to most. Unfortunately I just don't think that their newest album holds the same energy that all their other releases had. It seems that the trio tries something new every album. It just seems that there isn't anything too new here. It sounds like the material from "Eyewitness" kicked down a notch. In their evolution they have passed a darker sound for a nicer poppier, next door neighbor one. This is understandable and highly acceptable because these guys hold some serious writing prowess on many genres but unlike their other albums, this one just seemed to fail to stand by itself as one continuous album. Instead of an album of sonic ups and downs and some super strong material, it seems more like "Sonic Boom" is composed of a skeleton of really strong songs (which rank with some of my fave Shades songs) like Conspiracy, Beat by Beat, Gravity, Shockwaves, and Spell held together with some pretty weak cuts like Rebel Teenager from Mars, Superzero, Radioactivated and Drive All Night. Instead of listening to the whole thing through like I do with Seeing Things, Neon, Save It or Eyewitness, I kind of find myself picking and skipping tracks. It's also a tiny bit irritating that they take songs from previous albums (like Seeing Things) and post them into their new albums. I know a lot of people have gripes over things like that but keep in mind at least they fit it into the material around it. I felt that "Behind the Wheel" was the best selection to put into this album and they didn't even have to change it to fit the mood. When they brought "Second Chances" over to Eyewitness they had to slow it down a tad so it would fit in with Eyewitness' sound. It might seems cheap at first but please keep in mind that these guys know what they're doing. In conslusion, Shades is and always will be my favorite band for all of their previous work and until the day I die, their music will always be playing in my radio. Unfortunately this album may sink to the bottom of my playlist. Its sound is most definately Shades and it showcases their different hooks and perks that make them such a great band but the production standing by itself is just a bit watered down this time around. It's a given that the hard nosed fans from the Save It era who griped these same things about the poppier Eyewitness album will throw an even bigger fit over this one. However, if you really liked the poppier stuff from Eyewitness, you will definately dig Sonic Boom as a little more of a sentimental and slower thing. Perhaps I will have a better opinion of this after it has grown on me for a couple of weeks but at this point I feel it's a little weaker than the older stuff. Will you like this? I guess it all depends on how much you liked Eyewitness. If you're an absolute Shades Fan like me then you need this one. If you really like Eyewitness, you'll enjoy this almost as much (maybe even more). Some of the old school people who were leary about Eyewitness might want to examine this one a little further before proceding.

Although there are a few songs that dont I dont love, songs like "Beat by Beat" and "Gravity" are great. Other fans may be familiar with "Behind the Wheel," which was available on their website a long time ago. If you're a Shades Apart fan, you won't be disappointed.

I like the composing, somehow surprising me.

The emotion of voice iS almost the same in every song that makes this album a little boring...

listen to each song seperately may be better.

OK, at first I thought Shades was a kids group. I bought my son this CD because he's a big fan. After lots of garbled listens through his closed door, I realized I really like this CD, so I went out and bought another copy for myself. The rhythms are energizing and unpredictable. The melodies are friendly but not recycled. The lyrics are emotional, visual, poetic and best of all for us moms, THEY ARE CLEAN!!! I'm an accidental fan.

There are some pop-punk bands that will sell their souls for some sort of radio success. And this release proves that Shades Apart are dying to be one of them.

Back in '95, in the wake of Green Day's success that brought underground pop-punk to the masses, Shades Apart released Save It, on Revelation Records. It was by no means a runaway hit, but it showed promise, and did gain some slight underground kudos amongst the pop-punk crowds. With every album since then, Shades Apart have been inching closer and closer to that cultural wasteland known as "alternative radio" (or possibly "modern rock" in your town.)

'97's Seeing Things had them teetering on the edge of the precipice: keep the edge & stay underground and "punk rock" or lose the edge and hope a different crowd latches on. Well, Eyewitness confirmed that they had chosen the latter, but I will admit that it had its share of good pop songs, and some that would have been more than adequate for mass radio play, if given the right "push."

But with this one, Shades Apart hurtles past their contemporaries and rushes headlong into territory that no sane band enters willingly. This stuff is... *gulp* ... worse than Third Eye Blind! This is sterile, generic, plodding, pointless, safe, pop .... The equivalent of Britney Spears with guitars. And MAYBE it would be forgiveable (live by the mainstream, die by the mainstream) if it weren't so poorly written and tuneless. Honestly, it makes Eve 6 sound like Mozart.

So time has not been kind to this trio, and they have no one but themselves to blame. I have a hard time believing their fans will enjoy this, as well as a hard time believing that even the legions of brain-dead radio listeners will bother with it (and they'll buy ANYTHING!)

So that leaves your fanbase as... ummm... mom's looking for "safe" music for their kids? Oh, a fate worse than death indeed!