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Invert

Where's The Problem?

Written by: TL on 09/07/2011 22:21:04

For my next trick review I shall need a some punk, some rock, four Croatian dudes and a debut LP. Happily, I have all of that at the ready in "Where's The Problem?", the first album by, you guessed it, the Croation quartet Invert. The band plays a style seemingly situated solidly between traditional pop-punk (think Blink 182 and Millencolin) and up-beat 90's alternative rock (think Hoobastank) which eventually leads me to comparing them also to the likes of Sum 41 and Autopilot Off.

Over the course of the fifteen songs presented on "Where's The Problem?", Invert demonstrate a few crucial pros to their sound, and a somewhat large collection of cons as well. Starting with the good news, the band has seemingly listened closely to their inspirations, learning how to put together songs that flow, sound convincing and have good energy, and more importantly, they've learned how to do it differently over the course of an album. As you may know from reading my reviews, having such essentials down means you're safely out of the worse ends of our grade scale.

However, coming to the cons, there are many things, small and large, that I'd like to complain about. One could for instance argue that Invert resemble their influences too much, as there's a nagging feeling of dated-ness and lacking originality to "Where's The Problem?". Furthermore, the lyrics are plagued sometimes by relatively trivial content matter, and sometimes by poor English, which I honestly think there's no excuse for. Surely, if you can manage to write and record an album, you can find someone to check that your grammar is in order. Also the album is waaaaaay too long at fifteen songs, or at least it feels that way, given how Invert's otherwise fair understanding of dynamics doesn't prevent ones attention from drifting about halfway through.

The worst thing of all however, is that while Invert manage to sound convincing and energetic throughout, they don't manage to come up with any hits. All of their songs manage to climb up into the 'fairly enjoyable listening' category, but no further, and while some, like "Poison", "Anxious" and "Nothing To Lose" may have slight memorability to them, it's not enough to prevent you from forgetting about the album almost immediately after listening to it. The record gives me the feeling that Invert have enough energy, skill and ambition to rise to the top of bands in their region, but compared to what's going on in the world wide music scene, I find that their ideas are slightly too regressive, and their hooks not catchy enough, to truly measure up.

Download: Poison, Nothing To Lose, Anxious
For The Fans Of: Millencolin, Sum 41, Autopilot Off, Future Idiots
Listen: invertofficial.bandcamp.com

Release Date 15.04.2011
**Self-released**