When the news of Max Bemis (Say Anything) and Chris Conley (Saves the Day) collaborating to create Two Tongues was announced, many were expecting stellar results from the duo. We all know how hard it is to live up to the hype, especially when your resume includes making some of the best pop-punk albums of the new millennium, which applies to both artists respectively. This supergroup's self-titled debut album does have it's shining moments, but overall, it shows that they both work best in their separate bands.
The album gets off to a very good start with the powerful "Crawl" and the emotional "If I Could Make You Do Things." Both tracks make great use of Bemis and Conley's "call and answer" style of trading-off vocals. Bemis' rough vocals counter very well with Conley's high-pitched singing, even though a lot of his wails are far too nasally for my liking. There are a couple of other solid tracks like "Dead Lizard" and "Tremors," but the main highlight of the album is definitely the oddly titled "Wowee Zowee." This is one of the catchiest songs I've heard from 2009. It's use of power chords and an energetic chorus (complete with chants of "Hey!") make it a song that will be stuck in your head for awhile.
Now onto the bad parts of the album. For starters, there is the poorly placed "Interlude" early on and the uninspired "Don't You Want To Come Home" which includes one of the most pointless guitar solos I've ever heard. Almost all of the slower numbers are just complete duds, a notable one is the cover of Ween's "Even If You Don't" which uneventfully ends the album. "Back Up Against The Wall" is another track that falls flat on its face, the cheesy synthesizers that begin the song don't help at all. My biggest question is why the songwriting is so dull. Sure, there are some well-written lyrics on here but there isn't anything that really got me like a lot of Saves the Day's lyrics have.
Like a lot of other people have said, Two Tongues would have definitely been a lot better as an EP rather than a full-length. There are a handful of quality songs on here that have high replay value but a good majority of this album is filler and very forgettable. This album was probably one of my biggest disappointments of the year but it does give me some positive hope for their respective bands' next albums since it's obvious that they both work better separately than a collaboration.
