ATP! Album Review: The Summer Set - Legendary

The Summer Set has proven time and time again that they are a good pop/rock band, but they aren’t aiming for good. They’re aiming to be, wait for it - legendary. And their latest release is proof that they are going to achieve it.

Setting out to create an album that would combine the best aspects of their previous releases with the so-called “x factor,” the quintet has created a piece of pop/rock gold. With 12 tracks - 13 if you count the bonus track - Legendary defines who this band is and who they want to be. From the upbeat songs about living life to the fullest (‘Maybe Tonight’) to odes about finding one’s “yellow umbrella, hoping to take her home” (‘Legendary’) and even back to their tongue-in-cheek lyrical roots (‘Jukebox (Life Goes On)’) their third studio album is by far the strongest release from these Arizona natives. Not only strong in that it showcases how they’ve matured in the album writing process, but as musicians as a whole. Both the vocals and instrumentation soar with a confidence that they didn’t in past releases, and it comes through in their live performance of the album’s singles.

One track, ‘Heart On The Floor’ featuring Dia Frampton -- who is the only guest on the album -- is arguably one the stand out tracks. While still boasting their trademark blithe lyrics, The Summer Set managed to create a story about love that finds its beginnings in a bar and ends with frontman Brian Dales promising to not “jet the morning after.” With a sound different to what is expected from the group, as it originally started with a “gospel time vocal sound,” the track still clings to the vestiges of the original imagining and is the moment in the album that fans will realize that The Summer Set is more than just a good band. They’ve become great. No, they’re becoming exactly what they are shooting to become. Legendary.

So, in the words of Barney Stinson himself, we request “the highest of fives."

5/5

Victoria Patneaude

Legendary will be released on April 16th via Fearless Records.