Bleach
Again, For the First Time
Tooth & Nail
Again, For the First Time is a big, huge, fat slab of poppy emo punk, with very singable lyrics and powerful punch. Bleach isn’t doing anything groundbreaking, but the album at least moderately holds the listener’s attention… for the most part.
Sadly, Bleach have not yet realized that it is already unpopular to have Moog synthesizers in your emo pop band, so this album is replete with fuzzy keyboards, a la “Oh Amy” from The Get Up Kids’ first record. In terms of GUK similarities, Bleach’s lead vocalist kind of cops the fat little lead singer’s voice from GUK; there’s worse people this guy could imitate, though! At times, Again… reminds me of Jimmy Eat World, at other times, Weezer (their high pitched, back up vocals on “Broke in the Head” are a total Matt Sharp rip off; to make matters worse, there’s a drum fill in this song, stolen straight from one of the songs on GUK’s Something… album; Bleach, you bad boys!).
I teach school, and the three “emo” kids at my school rave about Bleach; after hearing this, I can understand why they do. Bleach really does combine the best part of a bunch of already popular “emo” bands, to create a sounds the kids are eatin’ up! P.S.: these guys are still sporting the black plastic glasses (wake up!).
Tooth & Nail Records: http://www.toothandnail.com
