With Your World Won't Listen, Cruel Hand offer up a middle-of-the-road album that occasionally dips into moments that are reminiscent of their stronger work, but mostly doubles down on their cringeworthy attempts at shoehorning a more mainstream radio-rock sound into their repertoire. That it picks up where they left off with 2014's equally fumbled LP The Negatives, it feels like the band have failed to learn from previous errors.
Some of the earlier songs, like "Nowhere, Nothing, Never" and "King," have as much bite and emphasis as tracks from their 2010 success Lock and Key, and it's in these moments that Cruel Hand are at their strongest. However songs like "Liquid Paper," "Too Far From That" and "In This Alone" channel Linkin Park and Papa Roach in equal parts, making for trite choruses and clean vocal sections that feel like a tip of the hat to No Warning's Greig Nori-produced Suffer, Survive.
If Cruel Hand were to hone in on what they did best, they might have a devastating hardcore album on their hands; instead, their attempts at mass appeal dilute the entirety of the set, and leave a great portion of songs an embarrassing mess.
(Hopeless)Some of the earlier songs, like "Nowhere, Nothing, Never" and "King," have as much bite and emphasis as tracks from their 2010 success Lock and Key, and it's in these moments that Cruel Hand are at their strongest. However songs like "Liquid Paper," "Too Far From That" and "In This Alone" channel Linkin Park and Papa Roach in equal parts, making for trite choruses and clean vocal sections that feel like a tip of the hat to No Warning's Greig Nori-produced Suffer, Survive.
If Cruel Hand were to hone in on what they did best, they might have a devastating hardcore album on their hands; instead, their attempts at mass appeal dilute the entirety of the set, and leave a great portion of songs an embarrassing mess.