Monday, July 7, 2014

MP3 REVIEW: Repeat After Me “Mapmaker”



                When I first saw this album and the concept behind it, I must admit that I was impressed.   This is available as a record and when you buy it on vinyl it comes with a black and white sleeve plus crayons so you can color the album cover as you best see fit.   I thought this was so cool I was almost compelled to purchase this record.   But then I listened to it and all my hopes were dashed.

                It’s not that Repeat After Me are a bad band, in this sea of pop and mediocrity they are actually rather good, it’s just that, to pardon the pun of their name, they are repetitive.   The music itself is of the nature of Finger Eleven, Pink Floyd or just all around The Who song “Behind Blue Eyes”.   The problem is that the choruses tend to repeat the titles of the songs a lot.

                I understand that this can be done and is acceptable for that sort of commercial or pop rock sound, but at the same time I noticed that a lot of the songs tend to hold the same patterns and structures within them, which over time could be okay but for the purposes of a single album feels like overkill.   

                I’m not going to get into the whole concept of “Verse Chorus Verse” here because it’s been explained many times before, but that is primarily what Repeat After Me is doing.   This is a good rock album, and maybe I’m being too hard on it but if I am it is only because I can see the potential in it to be great.   

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