I wish I had gone to school with the guys in Faulter, because while there weren't too many people in high school who I could have beat up (that girl who got pregnant and the dude in the wheelchair being the exceptions) I definitely could have taken Faulter -- even all at once.

While Abacus Recordings have made some great signings as of late (Planes Mistaken for Stars, Righteous Jams and Cancer Bats) they stumbled pretty heavy on this one. Faulter stands out from the rest of the bands on Abacus to such an extent that I had to triple-check the label on the back of the CD and then head over to the Abacus website just to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me.

Here's the deal: if you caught half the dates on the last Dashboard tour and still rock the hell out of your Something Corporate CDs then you've got to stop reading this and go pick up their debut, Darling Buds of May, because you're going to love it.

Darling Buds of May is 12 tracks of gooey melancholic piano-driven emo that only my teenage sister and that dude who wears the same jeans as my sister could love, though I'm sure that as a 26-year-old male, I'm not really the person Faulter had in mind when they were thinking about who might actually buy their record. Even then, I'm not so sure anyone is going to be seeking this one out. Fautler's style of music is a trend that is largely over. People who would have bought this, heck even two copies of it, as late as the summer of 2003 aren't going to go anywhere near it anymore. If it weren't for a stronger dose of mainstream rock in their sound, they'd sound exactly like the name I dropped earlier in this review.

If this is the music that Faulter really feels best represents them as artists and human beings, then props to them for putting it out there, but if they've got even the slightest notion that this is something people want (or deserve) than they're sorely mistaken. Darling Buds of May might sound nice, but it's completely lacking in originality.