E For Explosion are not a burst of anything wonderful, judging by the album “Reinventing The Heartbeat.” They are not a horrible band, it is not a horrible record, but it is middle ground emo turns to soft rock stuff that I actually grew the patience for and accepted before falling asleep. I did not literally fall asleep, but the music tried, it tried.
“Sunday”: A wall of sound that is part annoying feedback and sprinkles of sitar? The lyrics are less singing and more like someone whisper-pushing out words, possibly mid-turd-drop. Not much of a song in my opinion.
“Reinventing The Heartbeat”: “I want to reinvent the heartbeat, sleep with suicide.” It has even more over the top cheese lyrics about missing butterflies and other emo girl stuff. It’s another wall of high sound pop rock song, that one might call an electric version of early Dashboard Confessional, but more whispery/constipated than ugly whiny.
“Behind Every Breath”: A light pop rock jingle, decent slush. I could see a boy band doing a cover.
“Echoes”: Wishy-washy, waiting for the hushed repeating to turn into singing, waiting for the dandelion wish to land and grow, but the weed dies, aborted mid-air.
“Lies Lies Lies”: I find the lyrics to be silly, but the melody is not bad for what it is: soft rock, hit a couple of high notes, romantic notion, emo.
“Paper Flowers Never Die”: It works in sound better than some of the other tracks, even with the over-dramatic lyrical content drowning in sap once again. It kind of had a more upbeat Cure vibe to me.
“See You Soon”: I could envision this as the light theme to an old WB show or something, like “Dawson’s Creek: The Puddle Years.” A soft easy going Dashboard Confessional without the terrible singing and angst, holding hands through the meadows song. Easily better than most of the tracks thus far on the album.
“You Know Who You Are”: Simple, soft pop ballad. It’s not bad, but it’s not stand out. Alone it would have a better chance than being buried on this album. A person could discover it at random in the right moment and assign emotional value to it. It is even better that “See You Soon.”
“Unit 402″: Talky, reading poetry, story non-singing singing. Am I the only one feeling the Dashboard Confessional vibe to E For Explosion? I don’t expect an answer, I’ve never known anyone who listens to E For Explosion , and actually never heard of them before getting this random album. .
“Antarctica”: Mellow ballad mood music. It’s not someone pouring their heart out, it’s someone at the piano thinking about life and its lessons perhaps.
“I Explode”: Pushed whisper vocals against soft pop rock alternates with distant broken radio vocals and it sounds best with the volume on 1.
“Saving Lives”: This song possibly has the most clever lyrics amongst its song brothers here. However, the sound is too easy to push into the background and not really listen to. Generic, soft pop rock, yet possibly tops “You Know Who You Are” as best song on the album.
“I Ain’t Lost If I’m With You”: It wants you to just go to sleep.