Killing the Dream

After such a consistent upwards trajectory over the course of three records, it's sorely disappointing to witness such a dramatic drop in quality as the one presented on Lucky Me. At less than 20 minutes, the album's brevity promises a tight, consistent listen the songwriters are simply unable to deliver. At points, the record recalls a looser, wimpier Norma Jean ― a far cry from the energetic, tastefully melodic hardcore of previous outings. While a lack of progression is something that has crippled the genre in recent years, the solution isn't to aimlessly stumble through seven underwhelming tracks with minimal gusto. Whoever informed Killing the Dream that adding strings sections and embarrassingly warbling clean vocals would flesh out their sound in any kind of listenable fashion was clearly trying to sabotage the band for good. While there are brief flashes of passably catchy melody and a couple of sections where you might find yourself nodding your head for a few moments, these aren't frequent enough to warrant a purchase. It's not that they aren't a good band, because they are. If they bounce back and make the album of their careers a couple of years down the road, we can call this their 808s & Heartbreak.