Overise

A Long Story, the debut EP from Philadelphia pop-punk upstarts Overise left a bad taste in my mouth almost immediately. I put this in the CD drive to my computer and started listening to this a little before 1 AM last night, and by the time it was over, I realized I had missed the first 15 minutes of "Walker, Texas Ranger." If I miss "Sportscenter," fine, "the Daily Show," okay, but making me miss "Walker Texas Ranger" is not an easily forgiven offense, especially seeing as the music that made me miss those first 15 minutes was nothing other than token pop-punk.

All of the pieces are put right into place for the listener: sugar-sweet harmonies, melodic but simple guitar work, and cringe-worthy lyrics. They seem perfectly content to nestle into their place in the grandeur that is musical mediocrity, but at this point in my life I really can’t settle for that. I’m not trying to be elitist here, but there’s only so many times the exact same things can be said in a different order, and the same voices can be used under a different band name. Is it catchy? Somewhat, but you know what else is: Hepatitis. Being catchy does not amount to actually being an interesting piece of music, especially in this case, where most will grow tired of this EP before all twenty minutes can even be listened to.

There are instances in this EP where the vocals sound almost identical to that of other pop-punk singers, though I can’t put my finger on just who most times. Lead singer Joey De Noble’s voice isn’t overly nasal, but that doesn’t stop him from sounding like Kenny of the Starting Line in “My Mistake.” “My Mistake” and “Heaven” bring up another gripe I have with this EP, which is that the songs, aside from really having no natural flow, just go on for too long. The choruses get very repetitious towards the latter part of the songs, yet they just keep on going, with the only potential saving grace being the guitar playing, which can be considered a little adventurous for pop-punk at times. Though during many of those very same instances, the guitar-work sounds more like the opening for “Beverly Hills 90210” than anything else.

“Part Time Crush” closes the album with a soft piano intro, leading its way into more awful lyrics, understated guitar playing, and back and forth harmonies, until leading out with a few piano keystrokes. Besides the chorus in "Outside" there's just no replay value here. This is pretty much a default pop-punk album; everyone has heard the same chords, melodies, and lyrics somewhere else, and no doubt done better than this. I’ve heard much worse, but if these guys plan on releasing a respectable, and listenable album anytime soon, they’re in the wrong genre.