Major League

There's Nothing Wrong With Me

Written by: PP on 10/12/2014 19:42:36

For those who like their music loaded with emotional charge but also require a certain degree of substance and depth within it, the scene has provided a great offering lately in various styles ranging from the dreamy and introspective to the loud and abrasive. Leading this charge has largely been two bands, Balance & Composure and Title Fight, but close behind we have a breadth of like-minded peers delivering consistently good albums and showing no signs of sounding derivative or generic just yet. Though at a rate that these types of albums are being released, I am sure that period is in the horizon soon enough. But for the time being, we can enjoy solid releases from bands like Major League, who show true signs of progress from their excellent, albeit slightly angsty debut album "Hard Feelings" from last year on new album "There's Nothing Wrong With Me".

Where their debut album was firmly rooted in pop punk principles and a high-octane delivery recalling Junior Battles and Punchline among others, "There's Nothing Wrong With Me" slows things down drastically to achieve a far more depth-laden, immersive alternative rock experience in comparison. Sure, nuances of pop punk are still present in the background, but the majority of the record sounds like it could've been written by a different band altogether. Lead single "Just As I Am" channels Balance & Composure through its introspective and atmospheric post-hardcore, much like opener "Wallflower" which drags indie-flavor from similar bands like Have Mercy, The Dangerous Summer, and others like them into the mix. "Little Eyes" and "Devil's Advocate" are a little bit more pop punk-ish in delivery, but even here the band sound radically different as they try to add more meaning and intricacy into their sound.

Well, mission accomplished, even if Title Fight and Daylight are both recalled in equal measure to the constant Balance & Composure worship. The thing is, it doesn't matter that you sound similar to X amount of bands as long as you write good songs. Here, the band stray into a darker realm songwriting wise and draw out depth-laden melodies with dreamy instrumentation that screams of songwriting prowess throughout the record, as evident in tracks like "Recovery" and, the album highlight, "Bruiser". It's a slow, emotional song that resembles Have Mercy in the beginning before morphing into the dimly lit, murky soundscape that surrounds the entire record. It's intriguing, and the grower type melodies are back chilling to say the least. This is going to be Major League's breakthrough to the wider attention of the scene.

8

Download: Rittenhouse, Wallflower, Graves, Recovery, Just As I Am
For the fans of: Balance & Composure, Basement Junior Battles, Punchline
Listen: Facebook

Release date 04.11.2014
No Sleep Records

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