Grade

Under the Radar (Victory)
by Tim Den

Not that Victory Records hasn’t put out great selling stuff before, but their latest acquisition of Grade is going to be the label’s cash cow. No lie. Consider the hype surrounding the band’s last effort (Separate the Magnets), their incredibly die-hard fans, and have-to-be-seen-to-be-believed live shows, and you know these new releases are going to fly out stores like the wind. Enough raw aggression to qualify as hardcore, enough melodies to be worshiped by emo geeks, enough rock to be embraced by the punk community… it’s all here. And Grade does a good job of channeling all those characteristics into a formula that reeks of success.

That’s not to say that Grade doesn’t have their flaws. Like many bands these days that manage to capture more than one genre’s audience, Grade’s song writing tries to please all sides, too often with negative results. Almost every song on Under the Radar sounds the same, no doubt an attempt to win over listeners across the board with simple compositions. Playing every riff in a major scale, every song in an easy-to-nod to tempo, and crooning all the melodic vocal lines with hesitation (coming up with solid vocal lines would mean losing the hardcore/emo kids, you see), Grade is almost too good at pleasing everyone. It’s like good background music, something you’d put on at a party.

Everyone will dig it because it’s not horrible, it’s easy to sway to, and it’s not interesting enough to take your concentration away from what you’re really doing. I don’t know about you, but I don’t see these as positive characteristics. It diminishes the originality factor by buttloads. But who the fuck cares: the “kids” are going to go apeshit over these two releases. Even if the lyrics are dumb as rocks, the vocals unfocused (and dragging, and sloppily arranged, and unplayful, and…), and the songs all sound alike. Knock yourselves out.
(PO Box 146546 Chicago, IL 60614)