Emotionalpunk.com
Media Review
Music Quality: 6.0
Production: 7.0
Originality: 5.0
Tracklisting
2 Stranger, You and I 3:11
3 Iron in the Backseat 3:54
4 No One Is Convinced 3:47
5 Marching Band Intro 0:49
6 That's Our Hero Shot 2:59
7 To Struggle with Light Colors 3:35
8 Cue the Sun! 3:33
9 Miniature Christmas Tree 2:50
10 Love & Mercy 2:55
11 Hello Color Red 2:52
12 The Best Part About It Honey 3:13
13 How's It Going to End? 4:19
By about the third time Kenny Choi, leader of the Washington quartet, mentions Christmas, one begins to wonder why the album is being released in March. The music, lyrics, and certainly subject matter seem to deal with a very December tone, but I suppose that if AFI can release “Decemberunderground” in June, Daphne Loves Derby can release “Good Night, Witness Light” in March. On the third full length, the band continues to make the same, agreeable indie-pop that has amassed their fan base, adding in some slower, more acoustic oriented songs to vary the album.
But there seems to be very little to get excited about on this album. Even the vocals appear disinterested with what is being sung. The album has kind of a passive tone that just drifts along with the sugar-snap of the power chords that blast the songs to life. On tracks like “Iron in the Backseat,” Choi sounds like he has better things to do as he utters lines like, “Won’t you stop for a while/and kill me while I sleep and run.” Musically, Daphne is doing what Daphne does best: making tight, catchy pop songs that have the potential to stick in your brain for days on end. Songs like “No One is Convinced” and “Stranger You and I” work to full effect, having choruses that seem to go for miles and lyrics simple enough to get stuck on the tip of your tongue, making your finger want to press repeat. The band uses production to full effect on songs like “No One is Convinced,” with the keyboard background, and the violins on “That’s Our Hero Shot” serve as a great lead in.
However, the lack of conviction in Choi’s voice and the overall passive feel to the album work against handful of good songs the album has. The band doesn’t sell what works enough here to be convincing, leaving the listener bored and skipping through the tracks rather than taking them as they come. The acoustic songs don’t mesh and just bring the tempo of the album to a halt rather than making the album deeper. At the end of the cd, I found myself feeling sleepy and nodding off through the conclusion. Daphne has forgotten to think about the pace of the album, which is uneven and choppy at best, not properly mixing the acoustic songs in with the power-chord fueled pop-rock ones.
Undoubtedly fans of Daphne Loves Derby will flock to the album, and for them there is a lot here to admire. Some of the songs show greater ambition and range, but for more casual fans buying a couple of songs off of itunes may be preferable.