Cartel's "Cycles"
TJ Horansky
Issue date: 10/26/09 Section: Entertainment
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The album has a few shining moments, but it is also riddled with mediocre pop-punk filler. Vocalist/guitarist/lyricist Will Pugh and company hit the ground running with the album's first two singles, "Let's Go" and "The Perfect Mistake," as the first two tracks on the album.
In the first line of "Let's Go," Pugh proclaims, "let me reintroduce myself as a man with a cause," a message of reinvention that remains consistent throughout the album. This seems like an obvious attempt at redemption from the band's previous self-titled album, which did not live up to the expectations of fans and critics. The attempt seems plausible initially, especially on heavier, grunge-like songs such as track four, "Deep South," which has become one of my favorite songs of the year.
Unfortunately, the album never fully takes off the runway. Songs such as "Typical," sound just like the title suggests: typical, mediocre pop-punk. Anybody who enjoyed Cartel's cover of "Wonderwall" by Oasis will enjoy the acoustic-driven "Only You," but the album fails to deliver any other excitement to fans and critics.
"It Still Remains" and "See Me Now" feel reproduced, like they have been done before by the band. "Cycles" is somewhat salvaged by the lyrical progression of "Retrograde" and the heavy sonic elements of "Conventional Friend."
The thick overlapping guitars and thumping drum sequences of "Conventional Friend" bring to mind bands such as The Almost. However, the album never reaches it's full potential, as the filler tracks tend to blend into one another.
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