Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 08/26/2003
Streetlight Manifesto's competent, lively
ska-punk debut sets jittery, usually very rapid tunes to singer/guitarist
Tomas Kalnoky's ultra-fast vocals. (
Kalnoky also wrote all of the material and produced the record.) It's much like hearing a
hardcore punk singer supported by much cheerier melodies and varied rhythms than most
hardcore punk bands could muster. The lyrics, too, aren't too far afield from
hardcore, with their breathless narrative thrust and pumped-up vibes of prickly despair, uncertainty, assertion of individual identity against the odds, and fleeting images of violence. In truth, the actual lyrics
Kalnoky's singing are, for the above reasons, often no easier to decipher than those heard on many
hardcore punk records, though they're much less grating on the ear. And though they're helpfully printed in the sleeve, he's prone to jamming many words into very little time, so that some of them have to be reproduced in such small print that they're difficult to read. The band does prove itself able to concoct a variety of rhythms and arrangements within the
ska-punk format, the accelerations and decelerations adding some drama, the horns adding some
spy movie-like creepiness at times, and the frequent use of minor keys distinguishing
Streetlight Manifesto melodically from some of the group's competition.
~Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
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