So I got my wisdom teeth out today and have nothing to do but sit around at home on painkillers and eat Top Ramen. So I figured, what better time than now to give this promotional album a real listen? I have the free time and attention needed to really review a CD, and it's a band I know nothing about, to make things more interesting. Although the name Verona Grove kind of sounds like a rejected Yellowcard song title, I'm not one to pass judgment that quickly, at least in the case of writing a review.
Verona Grove is a relatively new band, hailing from Wisconsin but moving to Los Angeles in August 2006 to write their full-length debut. Why they needed to move to Heartlessville, USA to write music is beyond me (apologies if that offended you Southern California folk). Unfortunately, I don't even get to listen to the whole full-length they recorded, The Story Thought Over, only an EP with four songs from that album. But it turned out that I was glad I didn't get all eleven songs of that full-length.
It turns out that my Yellowcard fears were not far off. Verona Grove is pretty simple, derivative pop-punk slash pop-rock in the vein of
well I don't really know what else besides Yellowcard. Well, Simple Plan comes to mind also, so that basically gives you an idea of what you're in for. I hear the same notes and progressions from a hundred other bands, same verse-chorus-verse song structure. I thought at least it would be catchy enough to be a guilty pleasure, but nothing caught my ears.
The lyrics just reek of high school girl problems. For example, "Enough thinking about last year, let's live for tonight, I'll put my hands here, holding you tight." Yawn. I wish they could've tackled something original on some aspect of their music. They even try to pull off the slow piano rock ballad on "Revolution."
There's really nothing exciting on this EP. I can't even see myself putting it on as background music, even that would be too embarrassing. I'm sure there are plenty of Warped Tour-er's that would eat this all up, and I have to give them props for being a three-piece; it's always held a certain merit in my musical book. Maybe the bleeding wounds in my gums are swaying me negatively, but somehow I doubt it. You couldn't get someone to convince me to listen to this on a regular basis.
