Finch

What It Is To Burn (2002)

Ryan

When many of you look under the big bold letters of the band Finch, you will most likely see the label "Drive-Thru." Most of you know this label, and will immediately stop reading this review. For those of you who do not know about this label I will take the time to tell your asses why the fuck this label is trash.

The label "Drive-Thru" is a record label that cares about one thing in my opinion, and that is the money. Yea my friends, it is becoming a sad world in the music industry, because a lot of bands are "catering" to an MTV type atmosphere. They tend to loose their style, and attitude just to make the dollars. Blink is a perfect example. They put out a couple records early in their career that were actually good, and then all of the sudden they become pop. Why? Because more cash is involved if they play their music on the radio and MTV. In order to do this they have to quiet down and play soft for the radio so more people will like it such as thirteen year old girls, moms, ect. Anyway this is where "Drive-Thru" steps in. They have put out such bands as "New Found Glory," which obviously is a very hard working band. The problem is though is that they are a polished pop punk band made safe for little Jeffery to hear, and then they claim their punk. Another thing is that they end up getting printed on t-shirts that little girls will end up buying. In the process they will act as if they had their first orgasm(which they probably did). A lot of bands are turning into this, and this label happens to obviously look for that.

After all of this talk about "Drive-Thru," they do in fact manage to put out a couple decent bands. Rx Bandits put out an amazingly original album called "Process." Another band that I don't mind is Midtown even though I do sometimes wonder about them. I may be controdicting myself by saying I like Midtown since they are pretty much a polished pop punk band, as said above. The point is they can rock. The only other band that ever sounded promissing to me would be Finch. They came out with a very respectalble EP called "Falling Into Place." They brought a new sound to "Drive-Thru," and topped it off with refreshing lyrics, and awesome screams. The only problem is that was obviously only a taste of what they could do, and finally after a delay, the full length emerged.

I was very exited to hear this long awaited album, but for some reason when I bought it, it seemed like one of those things where you say to yourself, "Oh shit they don't have the cds I'm looking for, but I guess this will do." I suppose I just wasn't into it at the time, but as soon as I popped it in the cd player the exitement returned. The first song "New Beginnings" starts out exactly like the Thursday song, "Concealer." This song is one of the many highlights on this cd showing off some great lyrics, and excellent guitar playing. Also added in is some screams that send shivers up your spine. The screams that Finch combines in their music is actually more hidden so to say. It's kind of in the background of the singing, but this combines for some of the most ear appealing music. The screams are actually very catchy, and they even sometimes echo to cause some cool effects. This has a lot to do with the production, which is some of the best. The guitar playing is very good to, extremely smoothe, and breaking at all the right moments.

A lot of bands these days fail to write lyrics that actually mean something, or they are just too bland. Finch manages to produce lyrics that aren't too complicated, but also not to simplistic. The song "Letters To You" features some simply awesome lyrics such as: "Can't you see, that I want to be, here with open arms. It's empty tonight, and I'm all alone, get me through this one."

The best songs on the cd are: Letters To You, Post Script,Without You Here, and the bonus track that apparently only some people got, "What It Is To Burn." The song Ender can kind of get annoying at times since it is thirteen minutes long. The only weak song on the album is "Project Mayhem" which has too much of an alternative sound to it.

If a person hanging on the edge of a cliff is representing Drive-Thru, and only a couple of fingers are keeping them from falling, the band Finch is one of those fingers. They manage to put out an album that is very original, energetic, and intelligent that will be sure to make honorable mentions at the end of the year or maybe even more. . .