IN KEEPING SECRETS OF SILENT EARTH - 3

After enjoying "Good Apollo", which is the album that followed this one in the order of albums released by the band, I decided to explore the music further. I took a chance and took a step backwards in time to this album. Again, this album is still based on the same story as "Good Apollo" which is a huge concept story. One advantage of going backwards in their discography, is that I can clearly see how they have progressed. This album has a lot more leaning to the punk and emo sounds that the band evolved from, and it is also not very progressive when compared to "Good Apollo". The tracks are pleasant enough I suppose, but it definately is not as interesting. But you have to at least give some props to the band for the amount of progression from this album compared to the next album, which is something I sort of understood by reading other reviews.

Because the music is more mainstream and poppier on this album, the vocals are probably more annoying, almost sounding boy band-ish in some places. But you can hear some intellect in the music too, especially in the album centerpiece "The Velourium Camper" which is a 3 part suite, and this is the redeeming suite of the album, the remainder of the tracks being just too straightforward and pop sounding. The band, however, is very talented and would continue to strengthen their songwriting skills and so I don't judge the band so much off of this album than I do off of "Good Apollo", which is a very strong 4 star album. This one, unfortunately does not reach that status as it is simply a good mainstream album with some great hooks and interesting passages. So, I would have to say this one is not bad, it's just not really great either. But it is a great example of progression when you compare this album and the next one. 3 stars.