FrontpageI received this CD awhile back to review and have been sporadically playing it over the past two months or so. I find that it is the one disc that intrigues me the most out of the 5 or 6 CD's sent to me, to be reviewed in the last bunch. Being a fan of their label (Assassinated) has made me aware of Front Page for a little while. Unfortunately, I have yet to check them out properly, which is out-of-the-ordinary for me since they are a local New Jersey band (Mt Laurel).
When I first popped the disc into my CD player, I wrote them off as another nasally Starting Line rip-off band. Yet I kept going back to the CD! Here it is nearly two months later and I finally have the time to get back to doing some reviews for SicZine. During those two months, I found myself listening to the CD for my own pleasure, not just to form an opinion for this review. The singer is still nasally at times but not in a nauseating manner. They do remind me of The Starting Line but back when TSL were young and did an excellent job at marrying pop-punk with melodic rock. Of course the TSL that I enjoyed didn't last long and they became a tad pretentious and redundant as did most of the Drive-Thru Records bands.
Speaking of Drive-Thru…Front Page borrow a few pages from many of the early Drive-Thru bands such as Midtown, New Found Glory and The Starting Line. That's not a knock either. All of those bands were good at one time or another. Unfortunately after Drive-Thru sold-out to MCA, most of their releases went to shit. One last influence I unmistakenly hear in Front Page is also the most prevalent…early Saves The Day. It's no shock that a NJ melodic, pop-punk band would be influenced by STD, but its necessary to cite the heavy STD-sound coming through on this EP. I was never a big Saves The Day fan, however, they evolved their sound decently from their initial Lifetime rip-off approach. Front Page has a long way to go before they can be compared between releases like STD, but I can think of a lot worse bands to be compared to.
Front Page has the potential to be one hell of a band. The vocals are a bit nasally and forced at times, but the singer has a good voice for the pop-punk genre. The guitar-work is adequately competent and the rhythm section does an above average job on each track. Artwork and layout is well designed and presented further adding the the CD's appeal. Go pick this CD up when you get a chance.
Rating: 3.75/5
Songs Worthy of Replay: "Bigshot", "Mathematics" & "Q&A"
Synopsis: : Early Saves The Day meets a ménage-a-trois of early Drive-Thru Records bands. Good, catchy NJ band released by a good, diverse NJ record label. Support both band and label and pick up this if you're into pop-punk and/or melodic rock.