The Academy Is... - Fast Times at Barrington High
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Free Music Notes for Fast Times at Barrington High
Free Music Review: If you're over 18, this album probably isn't for you.
Hit: 2 Stars
Of course, there are plenty of 18+ people who will like the album, but for a majority this one just isn't quite about mature enough content to hold interest for long.
First off, this is not a 'bad' album, so much as a bad album for a band like The Academy Is.... Where previous albums were about life and touched on love in a more roundabout way, Fast Times is a blatant Boy Meets Girl high school soundtrack.
The first half of the album is likable because it consists almost entirely of hooks with a few other lyrics thrown in to make an actual song, while the last few are so generic they completely fade into the background if you're doing something else and you don't even notice when one song progresses into the next.
Were this released by a new band, or even a boy band, it would be considered par for the course, and in fact it feels very much as if it were released specifically to appeal to an audience between 13 and 18 in an attempt to court a wider fan base. The lyrics, when one looks at them apart from the music, revolve around the chorus and hooks and often just seem like a mish-mash of pretty sounding words instead of an actual song. It's as if William Beckett tried to take a page out of Fall Out Boy's book by making meaning with seeming randomness, only with a bubblegum pop melody that's popular with kids pouring their money into Miley Cyrus' Hannah Montana empire.
Make no mistake, the album will be popular with some. But for many young adults either in or graduated from college, whose lives revolve around things a little more complicated than passing notes to that girl or boy in homeroom, there are other groups singing about far more resonating things than a group of twenty-somethings waxing wistful about their high school years. In fact, far from being a 'feel good album' or a 'celebration of youth', Fast Times sounds more like The Academy Is...'s members had fairly sucky high school lives, if you can even pull any message at all out of what basically amounts to a bunch of repetative phrases put to music.
About A Girl, the first released song on the album that had so much hype around it, is actually fairly unclear in its message. I can't figure out if Beckett is singing about being in love, or pulling a fifth-grade "you didn't like me back then, so now I'm going to blatantly NOT sing about you now, so there". His Girl Friday may be about a girl cheating behind a boyfriend's back or it may be about a girl who left for another guy. The Test seems to be about dating somebody emotionally distant and barely interested, in a relationship doomed from the beginning. Rumored Nights follows that theme with another "she didn't put as much effort into the relationship as me" song.
The album is more about the drama that's so very important during high school years than about any real sort of growing up done during that time. For people who have moved on from the high school drama, it just doesn't resonate or mean very much. It's something you can put on in the background and bounce around to when in a good mood, sure, if you're not looking for anything too deep.
Style-wise, something about the album seems off. I'm by no means a musical genius, but much of the album sounds to me like Beckett is almost yelling to be heard over the music. In a lot of places it seems like he's singing out of his range...either going too low, like in the opening lines of Summer Hair = Forever Young, or going to a shouted, slightly-too-high in the chorus of His Girl Friday. I personally think that the album was too rushed in recording and not polished as well as it could be. Possibly in an attempt to get it out quickly in time for TAI's post-Warped tour dates. It's very probably that all of the album's shortcomings are a result of that rush, from the seemingly half-finished lyrics to some points where the lyric melody even seems to be in discord with the song's music.
In the current market, it's not a bad album. The song's chorus lines are memorable even if nothing else about them is, but I don't think any of the songs have what it takes to stay on top of anybody's interest for too long. There are simply deeper, more polished albums that don't try so hard to straddle genres being released right now. If you're a true lover of The Academy Is... rather than a fair-weather fan, then buy the album to show your support. Chances are you'll like at least one or two songs, even if they don't stick with you for too long.
Free Music Review: I don't Understand...
Hit: 2 Stars
The first thing that came to mind when i first heard the details of this album were simply "Huh?", why would a band regress in maturity so explicitly?? if santi had one thing it was a progression of maturity within lyrics and theme, but its just strange to me that a band would create an album about high school when there in their mid-20's. As far as lyrical content goes, william is below average at best on this one..
now ive been a fan since before almost here was released and i just can't get into this cd much at all, they seem to have ditch all that they were known for to simply put out a feel good summer record, i am still a fan, and i will still continue to follow this band but they need to do better than this, overall after four listens throughim finding this to be very generic and im hoping somehow their next effort will finally showcase some progression from almost here, because this is the one band i never wanted to see fall into the generic pool of rock acts today..
Free Music Review: the academy is... kinda sucky
Hit: 2 Stars
A disappointing effort from the academy is... Each time I listen to this album I keep hoping for these songs to grow on me, but they simply don't. Lyrics are vague and uninspiring. The new single is dire. But what hurts the most is that this album seriously lacks the energy, pace and catchiness that we find in 'Santi' and 'Almost Here'.
It is only towards the end of 'Fast Times' that things pick up slightly with songs such as "beware! cougar!" and "Paper Chase" which sound a little more like the academy is as we'd expect, but even then, they still don't quite get the job done. I hate to write a negative review about such a cool band, lets hope the next album picks up where they left of with 'Santi'.
Free Music Review: Is this really Academy Is..?
Hit: 1 Stars
Wow. Usually when a band develops they PROGRESS. This disaster of sound is truly disappointing to anyone that enjoyed "Almost Here" and "Santi" or any of the previous works. This cd was under the radar with me, and being a fan, I was truly excited. Unfortunately it didn't deliver ANYTHING. If I wanted to listen to "Boys Like Girls" (which I don't because they write HALF of the music they play), I would have gotten their CD out of the shoe box its in.
I really have nothing good to say about this CD, it is too simple, the words and the instruments, a HUGE step back from the song writing quality they have put forth previously. Not to mention the vocal approach sounded half hearted and dull.
This was more a warning to the mature listeners that think they are getting that great sound they used to have, than a scathing review meant to break hearts. If you are emo and in highschool this CD is right up your alley. :)
Off to the shoebox of shame with you, I'll just stick with the older stuff!!
Free Music Review: Speechless
Hit: 1 Stars
I do not remember the last time that I bought a cd that I wish I could have taken back. I have been a fan since their first album like many others. Although I don't feel that they should have kept doing stuff like their first album, I am extremely disappointed to see a band that has so much talent regress back into high school instead of progress into a more deep, complete band. I don't know what else to say. Unless you like songs with no meaning and catchy melodies, don't buy it. Goodbye The Academy Is...
R.I.P. Almost Here and Santi, your songs will live on in my heart