Loses Control＜Clear Vinyl＞

On its second full-length, Loses Control, emo punk-pop band Hey Mercedes cashes in on the promise it exhibited on its previous records. The album has 12 streamlined, hooky pop songs that just happen to have loud guitars. The band strips back some of its aggression and punk angularity and ends up with songs like "Quality Revenge at Last" and "Boy Destroyers," which are barely punk at all. Or emo either, as they exhibit none of that nearly played-out style's over-the-top emotionalism and instead go for a tone of cynical and detached melancholy. Bob Nanna's singing is sweet and powerful but doesn't ever dip into emo's ripping pages from my diary and weeping mode. Instead he sounds like he should be in Fotomaker or Artful Dodger or some other long lost and forgotten power pop band. The whole record sounds like a modern, super-charged update on obscure power pop, especially on riffy songs like "The Switch" and "Playing Your Song." Only the sound is more immediate and powerful than most power pop ever was. Loses Control isn't perfect. One or two of the tracks are on the generic side, and the smooth production by Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie tends to make the songs sound similar by the end of the disc. Still if you need a punk-pop, not really emo fix, Loses Control will help you out. Even the slightly generic songs sound good enough for a mixtape, and taken all together the songs add up to one of the most satisfying rock records of 2003 and one of the best punk-pop, not really emo records too. It's right up there with Bleed American and Something to Write Home About. ~ Tim Sendra

前身バンドであるブレイドの面影をまったく感じさせない、オリジナリティー溢れる2作目が登場。プロデューサーとして、90年代のギター・ロックに必要不可欠だった男、ショーン・スレイドを起用。優しさのなかにあるぶ厚いギター・サウンド、その音はシンプルだが強烈で、ダイナソーJrを彷彿とさせる。サウンドとメンバーのルックスから判断し、〈芯のあるぽっちゃり型ロックが完成!〉と言いたい。
bounce (C)田中 拓宏