Brandston

While Brandtson have never been the most original band on the planet, releases such as 2000’s Trying To Figure Each Other Out offered compelling, if somewhat cookie-cutter songs in the vein of Texas Is The Reason and early Jimmy Eat World. While the first track on their latest full-length, "A Thousand Year,” might lead you to believe the band haven’t really changed, you would be horribly mistaken. It sounds like someone has been listening to the radio lately and realising that emo just don’t pay the bills no more, and the result is the unfathomably derivative piece of total shit that is this record. "Earthquakes & Sharks,” the second offering here, apes its opening directly from Franz Ferdinand’s "Take Me Out,” while the subsequent song, "Demin Iniquity,” could have been the b-side to Modest Mouse’s "Float On” single. The rest of Hello, Control. continues in a similarly offensive fashion. I’m not sure who Brandtson think they are kidding, because anyone who likes album is probably an idiot.