Review by Seth Wood
Within seconds of throwing on Radio Room’s album 92||93, my ears perked up. The opening track “What You Heard” sets up the excitement—the soft, delay-effect guitars over very raw tom sounds, the bassy synth adding an element of wonder (“Whoa, is there a synth player?”), and the strained, angry vocals punching in unexpectedly all fuse together to create this thrill that you are about to hear something you have never heard before, so you shift your weight forward a bit and now you are on the edge of your seat, waiting for this song to just grab you by the throat and throw you into some undiscovered musical landscape… but unfortunately, this will end up being the high point of 92||93.
Trailing that initial moment of excitement is a very simply chorded verse accompanied by arbitrary yells that seem to be trying to fit into a melody but never quite create anything musical. The chorus will give you something to bang your head to but ultimately, “What You Heard” ends up being just the first in a slew of tracks that seem to be haphazardly thrown together and which carry no sort of momentum or dynamics. Every song has the same delay effect on the guitars. The drumming pretty much seems to fall into one of maybe three different grooves. There are no melodies that will torture you at work the day after you listen to the album.
Ultimately, my biggest gripe is that the songs all seem to end up in the same rut. Each song somehow ends up flat-lining within the first thirty seconds, usually because the band will transition in and out of parts that sound very similar. Because of this, there is no momentum or feeling that song is taking you somewhere. You end up feeling like you are listening to the same thing over and over.
The most concise way I can sum up my thoughts about 92||93 is to say that the songwriting is just a bit juvenile. The guys in the band are young, which means there is plenty of time for improvement. As long as the passion to make music is there—and I get the sense that it is—a band can grow.
The album is available on Itunes, Spotify and Amazon. I encourage everyone to check the album out for themselves before just taking my word for its quality. It is at least worth hearing the foundation that this band has laid for future releases.
Rating: 1/5
Listen to “Better Now”