The Rock Band - a Review of The Phantom Tollbooth

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Making Matters Worse Artist: The Rock Band Label: Salad Dressing Records Length: 10 tracks / 27:24 min	Sample Breakdown

The first offering from this young band showcases ten tunes of the melodic punk pop/emo variety. Judging by their bios on the web site, these three guys love punk, and Making Matters Worse doesn’t make too many attempts to venture out of that zone. "Falling from Cloud Nine" does serve as a breather, with tempo brought down to a slow walk, and "Dear Friend" rounds the album up melancholia note. For the rest however, Making Matters Worse is an explosion of power chords and furious drums.

While the lyrics often revolve around relationships, they do not, thankfully, come in the same cheesy form as punk lyrics often do. Chief lyricist Derek Zacharias proves to quite a capable writer, especially considering he’s only nineteen.

Sadly, the production does The Rock Band little justice. If they had a bigger budget, I could definitely see them making some nice ‘n’ tight punk records in the future. For now, Making Matters Worse could make your day if you like straight-and-simple pop punk.

Eric Daams 07/13/2000