Glasseater's "Medicine" is, for lack of a better term, "that one Glasseater song." Ask anyone who sort of follows the underground music scene if they've heard of Glasseater, and they'll say something to the effect of "Yeah, I have an MP3 of that one song... 'Medicine,' I think." Every band gets their one song, and Glasseater definitely already used theirs up.

A good majority of Everything Is Beautiful... is spent trying to recreate the magic that is "Medicine." Hell, one could argue that a good part of their self-titled album on Fearless was also spent trying to recreate that song, but I digress. Glasseater's basic formula [one of aggressive-yet-poppy punk rock intermingled with transparent screams] is repeated ad infinitum with these ten songs, and after the first handful of tracks, it just starts to get really old, really quick.

That's not to say that the band can't write a good tune - The album's opening salvo of "Greetings... Goodbye," "Art Of Communication," and "Falling Apart" is as solid or better a trio as many other bands in their league [and many of their labelmates, as well]. In those 3 tracks, you understand what Glasseater's recipe is all about, and by the end of "Falling Apart," you can A)predict the rest of the album and B)make a rather easy judgement call on whether or not you'll like the rest of the CD.

The riffs start to get recycled towards the end of the disc, and the lyrics seem to move into the shallow end at the rate of a foot-per-track [with the ending trio of "Recurring," "Break Away," and "To Feel Adored" just being absolutely painful to actually listen to]. While I'm sure singer Julio is sincere and honest as all get out, his nasal drone [akin to Midtown, but much worse] is borderline earplug-worthy after multiple listens.

Of course, lots of kids will tell me I suck for badmouthing this band because they really "speak to them." Odds are most of those kids are just that - kids. Glasseater could very well be hundreds of kids' gateway drug into a much more potent punk and hardcore scene - one can only hope a few of those kids will pick up a Glassjaw album by mistake.

MP3s
Art Of Communication
At Your Own Risk
Everything Is Beautiful When You Don't Look Down