what a disappointment - i ll keep this short and sweet:this CD sucks.you might like if you re 12 and into really lame music, think you re cool, etc. but it sucks.their first CD was AMAZING. i have no idea what the hell happened, but this CD was a waste of my money. buy the first CD, it s emotional and beautiful and amazing. and then the band decided to jump on the punkrock train, and now they re just like everybody else.the lyrics are lame. they re just boring. and the vocals are obnoxious, i find his voice irritating. just... ew.don t. buy. this. CD.
I love ALL AHF CDs thus far! - I just saw these guys play live (Feb 2005, opening band for Bowling for Soup in Burlington VT), and I can NOT believe that I had never heard them before. They rocked the place, and I bought all their CDs the very next day. Not only was their show great, but they even hung around afterward, to talk with fans and sign CDs, shirts, etc. Totally cool. My favorites on this particular CD are Art of Losing, Breakup Song, Nothing Left to Lose, The Gold Rush, and Built for Speed (when you have that many favorites off of one CD, you know it s a good one!). Their new CD Hearts on Parade will be released by Maverick in April 2005 - and I highly recommend that one too (based on a pre-release EP we bought at the show). And don t miss the chance to see them perform live if you can.
absolute garbage - Amazon won t let me rate with zero stars. I saw a video from this band air on MTV one evening while flipping through cable. The song was something about the geeks getting the girls? Anyway, I am completely serious when I say that I felt nauseated. Exactly what kind of music is this? I read in the Amazon review that one of the songs contain lyrics from Stacey Whatever concerning an attempt to get his My Bloody Valentine, and Pixies album back. Please dude, don t write about real bands any more, you totally discredit them (what with your apparent extensive music collection it makes me believe you are spreading everything thin, and you ve completely missed the essence of good music). Oh yeah, why are Top 40 bands such as this (see also Good Charlotte, Sum 41, Blink 182, etc.) being called Punk? I m not usually negative, but this is such a blatant capitalistic commercial business endeavor preying on impressionable young minds, it makes me sick and deserves to be called out.
Not better/worse--but different than their debut - This is one of those albums that you just have to take at face value. While AHF may have shown more emotional range with their debut album, Art of Losing is prototypical punk-pop: 3-chord driven melodies and lyrics sung with just enough venom to make you pump your fist. It is meant to be played loudly--preferably somewhere you can pogo like a madman, or at least sing along. The hooks on Breakup Song, Nothing Left to Lose and Built for Speed are straight out of the I can t get this #*&$ verse of my head! category.I think the ballads are the weak spots of the album. This is the Sound sounds too much like (the worst of) Oasis for my tastes, and Save Me has more cliche s than I like--soft/loud/soft, acoustic verse/electric chorus, and guitar licks that could have been sampled right off a Creed album.When AHF rocks out, the result is much, much better. What I find interesting is that the album seems to progress from more pop in the first tracks to more punk as the tracks progress...a rare album where the later tracks are better than the earlier tracks.
good album but not as good as first - this is an underatted band. i like how is has its own sound no trying to sound like other bands. i saw them play at michigan state university and they were awsome. if you want some good rock go buy this album.