theSTART Shakedown! (2001) Universal

A while back, when I was into Incubus, I went to one of their shows. The opening act was a band called The Start, which I was sort of mad about because the tour stop I went to seemed to be the only one with that band, and the rest had Hoobastank, who, at the time, I really wanted to see (yeah, I know, I'm a moron) instead.

But I ended up being pleasantly suprised. The Start had great punk rock energy on stage, and played some cool songs. The lead singer, Aimee Echo, also mentioned that a lot of them were older songs (which we'll get back to later).

I finally decided to pick up their latest effort, "Shakedown!", and I was quite dissapointed. The Start I saw seemed like a great girl-led punk band, like Tsunami Bomb. But this album was more like techno mixed with 311.

Sure, there are some good songs on here, like the title track, "Gorgeous," "Melt," and "Nemesis." They all show some punk rock background, while everything else is boring and bland. After listening to this CD a few times through, it just leaves me very unsatisfied and it feels incomplete.

I guess a lot of their older stuff must have more of a punk rock vibe to it, because their live show was great; this CD is not. If they got rid of the techno/electronic angles, this may have been more decent. Overall, I was looking for some punk rock with girl vocals, but I ended up just getting some heavier No Doubt.

So, I'm just gonna go listen to The Eyeliners now...

(Eddie)