Ocala, FL-based post-hardcore outfit
A Day to Remember's third full-length offering opens with the blistering "The Downfall of Us All," a hugely melodic slice of metal-infused punk-pop bliss that's sure to land a second life in countless montages on MTV reality shows and 30-second cola commercials. What follows is a collection of perfectly executed and fairly standard clean vocal post-hardcore emo-pop that both revels in and illuminates the limitations of the genre. While lead singer
Jeremy McKinnon fulfills his duty as a clean/screamo switch-hitter throughout Homesick, the incessant group vocals provide the thread from which the album was designed. Exciting at first, the constant "yeahs" and "heys" eventually dissolve into the waves of distortion mid-album, resulting in the audio equivalent of an energy drink crash. The band does its best to juggle both worlds on the pretty, simplistic, and anthemic "Have Faith in Me," and closer "If It Means a Lot to You" provides fans with a fine Bic lighter/cell phone light moment, but there's just not enough here to separate it from the deafening, ultimately forgettable, over-compressed slabs of twentysomething angst that came before it. [Homesick was released on LP in 2011.] ~ James Christopher Monger