This Providence

For emo pop, This Providence showed a pretty masterful wit on their first full-length, 2004's Our Worlds Divorce. Sure, there was plenty of influence from contemporaries, but something about it put the band a notch above said contemporaries, and hinted at the potential to be much, much more than that.

Cue the band's signing to Fueled by Ramen. If the band knew they were going in that general direction, it makes sense, since they should feel pretty at home here. While their self-titled followup clearly shows a bigger influence from stateside fellows Gatsbys American Dream, it also feels achingly similar to labelmates and new mainstream darlings Panic! at the Disco.

The first track, "A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing," is actually pretty solid. Though its acoustic intro makes it sound like the song should've came a little bit further in the album, it's chock full of nice, stomping stop-starts and immediately proves the increased Gatsbys influence. However, further down the nausea-inducing similarities start to come into play: "Secret Love and the Fastest Way to Loneliness" depends upon Panic!'s rambled vocal style and chords that feel straight out of Forgive Durden's recent effort, while "Card House Dreamer" invokes the Academy Is...'s lazy style. Lame fuzzed out keyboards in "...But What Will They Say?" feel tacky and similar to A Fever You Can't Sweat Out's "dance" element. "Walking on Water" wades in those same quirky waters with obnoxious vocal moments.

Funny enough, Gatsbys' concept of self-referencing is something else This Prov coyly jacks -- "Losing Control" finds the inclusion of the couplet "the whole world hates us / the whole word hates your song...," sung the same way it is in "Our Flag White," the last track on Worlds.

I'm minorly disappointed This Providence would run out of ideas quickly enough to start stealing from bands even newer than they are. What's really sad is that This Providence is more energetic, less whiny, and has that stronger Gatsbys influence than Our Worlds Divorce -- and yet, its execution's few mistakes make it less of a convincing, solid effort.

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This Providence