I like to look at pretty girls. It's easy for me; I live near a college and work at a gas station right next door to a gym called Lifetime Fitness of all things. So I get an eyeful of babes day in and day out. It's nice. I'm not trying to come off as a pervy old guy but it's good to appreciate an alluring lass from time to time with a quick smile or a double take look. No harm done.
It is nice to see a bevy of beauties day in a day out with nice skin, cleavage popping tank tops and short skirts. I however, I do not like to see these type of girls gracing covers of "hardcore" CDs. I especially don't like them looking forlorn while a party ensues in the background. Suck it up sweetheart, Jay Reason still loves you. Well at least he knows you are still brokenhearted.
Remember when The Distance was a hardcore band? It wasn't that long ago actually. It has been hardly a year since If You Lived Here You'd Be Home Already came out on ThinkFast! Records. The CD premiered two new songs that showed a more melodic tone to The Distance's pissed off attack of fast hardcore with decent breakdowns. Needless to say I was stoked on hearing a more melodic approach from The Distance because I am a melodic hardcore superfan.
Imagine my chagrin when I happened to score a promo copy of The Rise, the Fall, and Everything in Between at my local used CD store only to see the token sad girl on the cover, then to be assaulted by four tracks of melodic sap rock that would have Yellowcard making fun of The Distance for being pussies. There isn't one but two references to having a broken heart and there are even some halfhearted attempts of anguished screamo yelps in the background.
Luckily they included "Phase Two" at track four from If You Lived Here You'd Be Home Already to remind me that this band is capable of writing some decent melodic hardcore without thinking about gracing Warped Tour second stages and Fuse airplay. Then it's all ruined by the next couple of songs, which sound as though they are directly inspired by Sum 41 and Fall Out Boy. Jesus Christ was that Bert McCracken from The Used I just heard?!?! The hell? Hard to believe The Distance once covered "Filler" by Minor Threat. Oh, the irony.
Okay, on the behalf of Jay and the rest of The Distance I know this was the "sound" they always wanted but maybe they should have just started writing Hot Topic ready pop-core instead of dragging the whole hardcore thing into it in the first place. I'd really hate to see The Distance become the Eighteen Visions of fast hardcore. However, after enduring what I listened to on The Rise, the Fall, and Everything in Between that seems to be the path that The Distance is on. Well good luck to you and I hope you get the unconditional love of the twenty-something girls that walk down the street in my neighborhood. I on the other hand will go back to listening to hardcore that matters.
