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SING IT LOUD - EVERYTHING COLLIDE

Review

I have to get this out in the open straight up, I am a sucker for palm trees, beaches and Santa Monica pier, so when I saw the cover of Sing It Loud’s second album ‘Everything Collides’ it had my attention instantly! The danger with that of course is whether the music would capture my attention in the same way? In the case of this Minnesota quintet, I can confidently say that indeed it does with a 40 odd minute soundtrack of anthemic pop rock that will warm up your Australian winter, or be the perfect soundtrack to your summer for those elsewhere in the world.

Opening track and lead single ‘Sugar Sweet’ with it’s infectious lead guitar will reel in any of us that love the mere mention of ‘california’, ‘sun’ and ‘waves’ in a song. It’s super catchy with hooks a’plenty and isn’t so sugar sweet that it’s sickly. The crunchy and driving guitars of ‘Thunderstorms’ is one of the heavier tracks on the album and hints at the influence of the album mixer Mike Shipley known to many of us hard rock fans for his work with the likes of Def Leppard and Winger for example. The lyrical themes throughout traverse from typical tales of summer, to the joys of love, the bitterness of breakups and and everything in between, mixed with lush vocal harmonies to convey the mood of the song, such as on one of the best songs that Third Eye Blind never wrote ‘Here For You’.

The middle of the album blends into itself a little with a range of mid paced and acoustic type numbers, but the pleasing thing is that each song still brings a different dynamic and has it’s own identity. This was not lost on the band as they set out specifically trying to achieve this, with Def Leppard’s genre defining hard rock album ‘Hysteria’ being used as a blueprint for tackling every song as it’s own individual entity. Whilst no songs on this album sound like Def Leppard, my favourite track ‘I Can’t Let’ is indeed an awesome rock song that draws on a slight Rick Springfield influence and will be stuck in your head for days....’I can’t keep myself from singing’, indeed I can’t!!!

Whilst ‘Everything Collide’ doesn’t bring anything drastically new to the table in the mass market of 3 word pop rock bands aged in their twenty somethings that litter the mainstream these days, the band are wisely moving in the rights steps forward to distinguish themselves from the masses. Their debut album was firmly planted into that generic category, however 2nd album up, they deliver a slightly mature sound with GUITAR SOLO’S that takes me back to the days when Third Eye Blind, Nine Days, The Click Five and American Hi Fi ruled the airwaves. Importantly though, this album is chock full of catchy power pop rock and that’s really all that matters!

Official Press Release

Breakout Minneapolis pop-rock group Sing It Loud will be releasing their hotly anticipated sophomore album, Everything Collide, on May 7 via Epitaph Records. Made up of Pat Brown (Lead Vocals/Guitar), Kieren Smith (Guitar/Backing Vocals), Nate Flynn (Bass), Ben Peterson (Piano/Keyboard) and Chris Lee (Drums), the quintet entered Studio Melmac in Minneapolis in the fall of 2009 with producer/engineer/mixer Jordan Schmidt (All Time Low, Quietdrive) at the helm, while Grammy Award-winner Mike Shipley (My Chemical Romance, Def Leppard) provided additional mixes after recording. The result is thirty-seven minutes of undeniable, chart-worthy pop-rock hits that will please their fans and have new listeners falling head-over-heels for them soon.

“I know many bands say this but we wanted to make an album that would stand out from all of the bands releasing albums in our genre and I truly feel like we went above and beyond that expectation,” explains frontman Pat Brown. “We also wanted to create an album that you can listen to from front to back that is strong and dynamic all the way through, which I feel doesn't happen enough these days. I remember listening to bands like Taking Back Sunday, The Starting Line, Less Than Jake, Fall Out Boy, Motion City Soundtrack, bands I would listen to their albums over and over and over from track one until the end. That's what I think people will do with Everything Collide.”

A follow-up to 2008’s beloved debut Come Around, Everything Collide features eleven mega-anthemic pop-rock hits like “Sugar Sweet,” “Addicted to When You’re Gone” and “Light It Up,” combining the band’s memorable lyrics and alluring melodies with rock infused guitars, warm buzzing keys and bounding rhythm on the perfect soundtrack for coming of age in an endless summer.

“Fans can expect an honest album with summer jams, fast songs, slow songs, acoustic songs, love songs and dark songs,” adds Brown. “All of the songs on Everything Collide are written about 100 percent personal experience. There are songs about our hometown, our friends, falling in love, getting your heart broken and even one about forgiving people you used to hate. There isn't one song that you won't be able to relate to on Everything Collide."

Rather than being given a ticket to the top overnight, Sing It Loud have worked diligently over the past two years, building a personal connection with fans across the country. From playing surprise shows at packed high school cafeterias, to after-show meet-and-greets and personal phone calls to thrilled fans, Sing It Loud are building a career-long audience through hard work and perseverance, and it’s paying off. Not only is Sing It Loud being embraced on a national level by fans, but they’re also being championed by MTV and popular teen/music websites and publications as critics begin to take notice.

Primed to take over as pop-rock’s next biggest act, Sing It Loud are ready to shine with their latest release, Everything Collide.

Everything Collide Tracklisting:

1. Sugar Sweet

2. Thunderstorms

3. Here With You

4. Only One