Kill Creek - Colors of Home
(Second Nature)
Kill Creek is a hard band to evaluate because for each inspired moment where they push little baby pushes at the boundaries of what their genre, pop-punk, can sound like, there are at least three moments where they record the same old same old and sound like a less attractive version of the Promise Ring or the Get Up Kids. After several albums on Mammoth, Colors of Home is the band's first on Second Nature, a much more appropriate home, and their first full length in four years. Yeah, these guys have been plugging away for a while, so you cannot discount them as newcomers jumping into the fray with only a couple new ideas.
"Divorcee" starts off as a simple song matching Scott Born's vocals with a female guest singer. The guitar is simple, repetitive, and laid back but pleasant and calming--a calming nature which when combined with the soft female vocals encourages Born to show restraint in his singing style (something which is in short supply on this record, as he is more often screaming in an off-key whine). Turned down from 9.5 to 5 or 6, Born's vocals are less distracting here, actually matching the female vocalist somewhat well. As the vocals drop off, the guitar continues and is accompanied by a mellow, 2 AM Sunday evening sax part. The guitar and sax meld very well together. Few pop-punk bands would try and pull off a song this restrained and so dependent on musicianship, but Kill Creek actually do it suitably well.
It is these moments of restraint when Kill Creek seem worthwhile, where they can dwell on a simple, sweet melody instead of launching into the loud section. Unfortunately these moments are limited and not the emphasis of the record, and when they launch into loud sections, the melody and hooks are negated by rough and tumble pop-punk normalcy. After "Divorcee," the band launches into the loud, energetic, but ultimately boring and bland "Serotonin"--these guys are probably too old to pull off bratty well, and if they are going to try it they should do something other than pogo around for two minutes and expect that to be enough. This song is followed by a sappy tearjerker, "Grandfather's Left Side," possibly the worst ever excuse for sensitive-emo-guy posturing. Yeah, everyone's grandparents get old and die; it is sad, but it's not something to write a song about! A plain old love song would be preferable to this fake sentimentality.
Kill Creek is a pop-punk veteran who maybe never got their just desserts since they were on the same label as the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Those in love with this style of music will embrace the cliches, but those who aren't will likely find them too big a hurdle to get around.
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