(not) gatsby's american dream

Gatsby's American Dream
"Gatsby's American Dream"
(Fearless)

Once upon a time, Gatsby's American Dream was One Point Two, a band from the suburbs of Seattle that sounded exactly like Blink 182. When that version of the band dissolved, most members went onto form Gatsby's American Dream, who started off as a Saves the Day rip-off band with their debut "Why We Fight." From that point, Gatsby's next few releases, the Orwell-inspired "Ribbons & Sugar" and the scene-crucifying "Land of Monsters EP," catapulted them from a mere cover band to the darlings of pop-punk. Aside from being technically sound musicians, there aren't too many good things I can say about this band: they're derivative, trite, and they get too bogged down with their unnecessary want for concept songs.

Their new self-titled album is more of the same, instead of being a pop-punk band, they've decided to exploit the dance pop that seems to be all the rage. Listening to this record is a lot like listening to a high school jazz band, you can really tell that there's a lot of talent there, but it's all going to waste on really boring material. All the songs on the album sound exactly the same and I ended up shutting it off halfway through in favor of watching "Futurama," which has some of the same concepts as Gatsby's topics, but seems to be infinitely more entertaining.