Album Review: Call The Cops - Call The Cops

It seems as if a plethora of pop rock bands are bursting onto the scene of late, anything with a catchy chorus, plaid shirt and a fringe is being snapped up by record labels looking to cash in on the trend. However this doesn’t mean to completely disregard the genre altogether, when it’s done well it can be fantastic, delivering some of the best albums of 2010 so far.

The bouncing synth and auto tuned vocals of the opening track ‘Like It Like That’ clearly sways more towards the pop end of the genre and this continues through to ‘So Over You’, which creates a well honed blend of dual vocals from Justin Allen and Will Shuck, who seem to work well together adding another dimension to the sound. The third track ‘White Dresses’ welcomes some female vocals which takes the band deep into an electro pop sound reminiscent of Katy Perry.

‘Get Up Or Get Down’ and ‘Shot Me Down’ continue the barrage of, at times electro hop, sounding scarily a lot like comedy group Lonely Island, however one thing this band do well is chorus’s, that hold a grip on you that you’ll certainly struggle to shake loose.

‘Room 410’ bursts out and grabs your dwindling attention, with a heavier side to these Long Beach lads, perfectly placed mid album to regain its hold on you, that up to this point is loosening. However the quasi–rap in the bridge feels slightly cringe worthy and cheapens the track.

The second half of the album holds some stand out tracks including, ‘Summer Ending To A Winter Night’ which showcases soaring guitars that then jump straight into ‘Love Like Novacaine’ that utilises some great use of keys and holds its own with a more stripped down sound, less reliant on the synth driven beats.

Sadly the album falls back into its predictable ways, ‘I Knew It Wasn’t Love (Girls)’ and ‘Weightless’ rely heavily on auto tuned vocals and a desktop computer. Finally ‘Crash’ brings a close to an album that is filled with cliché’s, too obviously drawing on influences like Katy Perry, 3OH!3 and Boys Like Girls, to name just a few that are clear to pick up on. Overall it’s an album that feels ‘over the top’ and quite honestly cheesy from a band that hasn’t quite managed to develop their own unique sound, more like a cheap cocktail of their peers.

2/5

'Call The Cops' by Call The Cops is released on June 22nd on MySpace Records.

Call The Cops on MySpace, Twitter and Facebook.

Connor O’Brien