The Honorary Title
Scream and Light Up The Sky
Reprise / WEA
What you’ve got in The Honorary Title is U2 for the teens. They’re MTV-friendly enough to slip onto the tours with the mainstream bands (Taking Back Sunday, The Academy Is…, Dashboard Confessional), yet somehow seem a step above these bands in terms of the songs they’re capable of crafting.
For this, their major label debut, the songs of Jarrod Gorbel are still on earthly ground, but you can get a sense that they could soon soar. “Radiate” could light up an arena one day, and “Stay Away” will make an entire generation of teenage girls weep.
No, I can’t dance less it’s slow or sad/ To a song that’s far less obvious/ You using me, do it slowly/ Make it last until I have to go – from “Stay Away.”
…Yeah, that’s the stuff of heartbreaks and wet pillows everywhere.
Scream and Light Up The Sky is an album, as opposed to a collection of MP3s you should be downloading. It’s complete in the way that most albums these days are not. You know all of those catchy Top 40 songs from the ’80s and ’90s that you know all the words to even though you may not know the band’s names? These are the types of songs The Honorary Title make. When it’s done correctly, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with writing some damn fine pop songs.
The Honorary Title: http://www.thehonorarytitle.com
