BANDS:

Punk & Ska
80's New Wave/
Post-Punk/
College Bands
90's & Beyond
Virginia, North
Carolina, & DC

This Is Exploding: Until the Next Red Light
[Derby Racer/Forever Blue]

This is Exploding play a somewhat unique combination of Get Up Kids-style power-pop mixed with wide shifts in musical and emotional disposition within songs.  Their guitar work is first rate.  Their leads are the perfect Jestys swooping singing style.  At the end of the day, it is this complex and tantalizing interplay that will bring listeners back to this record.  I found myself coming back for just this reason, even though I didnt really find myself drawn to the songs in particular. 

Mainly the lyrics proved to be a stumbling block for this reviewer.  It is hard to tell whether this is a random collection of songs about similar subjects or whether it is something like an indie rock concept album.  Ultimately I settled on the second proposition.  So far as I can tell, this entire album may be either a sustained Jeremiad against God for a variety of reasons that can be read out of the lyrics.  I couldnt tell, though, whether it was that or whether it was the oppositesomething along the line of Divine Comedy.  Maybe it is nothing of the sort, and I am reading too much into it; in either case, the lyrics didnt really do the job of getting the emotional point across in the way that the blistering guitar work and dramatic singing require. 

This is to nitpick, though.  This is Exploding produced an excellent first record.  Rarely do they fall into clich, and even then they do a pretty good job.  I cant say enough good things about the musical ability of this band, and ultimately the place they succeed where other similarly situated bands fail is in their impeccable musical intuitions.  If they reign in some of the more indulgent proclivities of their singer and focus more of their attention on their lyrics, we should be hearing more from this band in the future.     

This album can be purchased at This Is Exploding Official Website

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