The Beautiful Mistake

Light a Match for I Deserve to Burn (The Militia Group)
by Scott Hefflon

The Beautiful Mistake, like labelmates Noise Ratchet before them, have soaring moments that melt the ice of my “Dear God do I hate emo” heart surrounded by lots of the nooddling, yelping, screaming, and clamoring-for-girls’-affection bullshit that tests my self-control. Man do I wanna shake these little sissies and tell them to stand up and act like fuckin’ men. Sure, not everyone has to live by GG’s “Drink, Fight, and Fuck” mentality, but sobbing and crying and whining all the freakin’ time gets old quick. How can a girl have a strong shoulder to cry on, a sensitive man to confide in, when the little sobbing pussy is too busy beating his chest and tearing at his perfectly-touselled hair all the time?

So anyway, The Beautiful Mistake’s first full-length is warmly-produced by Ed Rose (The Get Up Kids, Ultimate Fakebook), and combines the noodly stuff these emo kinds seem to like so much with passionate/reaching vocals that really are the highlight – the honesty and sincerity just oozing out – and then there’s the hardcore roar stuff that, I think, Thursday and various others do. Never really saw what out-of-place hardcore yelling has to do with passionate, touching music (and I listen to, like, Borknagar and shit with clean singing/demon roar cuz that makes sense in a Jeckyl and Hyde way), though maybe what they’re trying to say is “I’m sweet, I’m sensitive, but I’m also gruff and need to shit.” In all, some nice sparse, dreamy moments punctuated by dramatic breakdowns (always the breakdowns), soaring melodies, and that fuckin’ hardcore roar to show they still got a pair. “Stavesail” and “For a Friend” are the choice cuts here.
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