The Astronaut Arcade

Montreal’s the Astronuat Arcade consist of members and ex-members from Subb, New Fist, Stinking Dogs, O Linea and When Gravity Fails, implying that they’d be able to use that combined musical knowledge to come up with something pretty impressive, but unfortunately they don’t. Their acoustic sound might appeal to fans of Dashboard Confessional looking for a Canadian alternative, but the songs lack the conviction to sound particularly convincing. In fact, the majority of the album sounds more like a demo tape that could really benefit from beefier production and the accompaniment of a full band rather than a single acoustic guitar. Some of the more promising tracks grind to an unexpected halt before they show their full potential and others hang around far too long. Most of the pieces of the musical puzzle are here, but the Astronaut Arcade just haven’t worked out how to put them together properly again.