From the streets of Cleveland comes Driver Side Impact filling that void in your heart where a band that plays a mix of pop rock, screamo and indie music would usually go. That\'s right, Driver Side Impact is filling in voids you didn\'t even know you had. But are they even filling that void completely? Or are Jack, Teddy, Mikey, Branden and Zach only putting a sliver of drywall where an entire mason job is needed?
With high-pitched pop vocals similar to those of New Found Glory with an added Indie edge, Driver Side Impact\'s vocal sound creates an interesting contrast to their harder instrumentation.
Driver Side Impact\'s new album The Very Air We Breathe features a few moments of musical greatness surrounded by an otherwise average album. Are the moments of greatness enough to elevate the album completely? I didn\'t think so.
After the opening instrumental track aptly titled "Introduction" leads into "Your Time to Shine" the sound does very little when it comes to changing pace or sound for a good solid five tracks. Personally, I place higher value on an artist\\\'s ability to provide some sort of variety on an album that to party hard for five solid and nearly identical sounding tracks. However, I will say that the third track "The Heist" has enough stylistic characteristic unto itself to make that five song power blast bearable.
When I reached the intermission instrumental of the album "Cadence and Cascade" I took the introduction of electronica sounds as an encouraging change. Does this mean the rest of the album will make use of a more digital sound? The track that immediately followed almost convinced me that my hopes had been raised only to crash upon rocky shores of musical monotony. But then, much to my joy and exultation, came the track "We Are Your Own" with a distinct electronic backup running parallel to the guitars that I\'d come to expect from Driver Side Impact. Behold the new sound of Driver Side Impact! This was what the first half of the album lacked: a Sonic the Hedgehog soundtrack running in the background! Never mind the seemingly glib comment of Sonic the Hedgehog, the new electronic addition to the sound thrills me to this moment. The tracks that followed all had me at a sustained level of musical ecstasy: "Life Like Movies" and "Tonight...We Dance!"
Finally I reached "The Artist", the brilliant culmination of all of the Driver Side Impact\'s elements into one glorious musical whirlwind. This is the track to listen to.
But as I said before, with one half of the album being musical monotony and the other ranking above par, the average of the two sides is, well, just that - average. Perhaps in the future Driver Side Impact will learn from the mistakes made on The Very Air We Breathe and incorporate more of certain elements into their musical style.
"The Very Air We Breathe" is on sale May 29, 2007 from Victory.
