The Failure
...Of Reason (2003)
Brian Shultz
The first name-dropped comparison is from coincidence rather than influence, I know already, but if you took the quirky vocal stylings and overall feel of Motion City Soundtrack, but left the keyboard and downtuned the energy a bit in some places, and maneuvered it with a simplistic version of an At the Drive-In approach, you would have The Failure. No, this is The Failure, with former members of Calgary's now defunct The Everymen, not the other now defunct band Failure who currently has members in Year of the Rabbit.
This band plays some good, rarely-poppy, melodic, driving rock, combining flashes of talented breakdown riffing with pieces of gentle, mellow instrumentation. However, they're at their best in cynical aggressiveness, like in "Greymoment/Enjoy it While it's Over," which could pass for a single that stemmed from AtDI's Relationship of Command sessions. The song also shows the discretionary social relevance the lyrics hold, with the chorus line of "it's the time, that we feel, that distraction emulates the focus we lack," the distraction being the bright lights and flashiness of our "fast food culture."
It's essentially just a hybrid of catchy melodies and restrained experimentation that keeps everything interesting. Plus there's a self-contradicted Samantha Mathis clip from "Pump Up the Volume;" can't beat that. Their sophomore release is recommended.