Cruiserweight
Sweet Weaponry
Heinous/Doghouse
Cruiserweight’s Sweet Weaponry is one of those rare albums to come across my plate that I know isn’t my type of music at all but that I can appreciate its quality enough to genuinely recommend it to fans of its genre. The genre in question is emo; horrible, horrible emo. This album is replete with pandering lyrics about trying “so hard” and righting “this wrong” and blah blah blah. But, the band, especially the singer Stella Maxwell, plow through clichéd territory with such aplomb and fervor that it’s hard to deny the catchiness inherent in their melodies. Maxwell stakes out the parameters of her audience from the opening track, “Vermont,” with the line, “No matter what they tell you/everything is high school… and you walk away.” Only “Operation Closed Eyes” attempts at a world-conscious view, and its sentiments come off as appropriately strong-willed and short-sighted. What it comes down to, as far as me standing behind this disc, is that in today’s radio climate – in which I’ve long since lost a vested interest – I’d much rather prefer the opportunity to ignore this on the hit music station than the frat-boy emo that’s currently payola entrenched. How’s that for a backhanded compliment?
Heinous: http://www.heinousrecords.com • Doghouse: http://www.doghouserecords.com
