So Close. Maybe Next Time

A friend introduced me to Armor for sleep last year and I had mixed feelings. I really enjoyed some of their songs, while I felt others were over-simplistic and rehashes of other songs. I finally found some time to listen to their new-ish album Smile For Them and had similar, mixed reviews.

The CD opens with the generic Smile For the Camera. The song is loud and fast and indistinguishable from any other Armor For Sleep track. Track 2, the pre-released Williamsburg, sounds equally repetitive, though it seems the writer had a purpose in writing the track. Though the instrumentals be nigh identical to other AFS songs, the lyrics are half-decent and redeem the song in my opinion. Apparently the singer doesn't like Williamsburg and had a bad time there... or so I gather.

I can see how some people really like Armor for Sleep and I can accept that, but it is just not for me. As the third track (Somebody Else's Arms) embodies, the songs by AFS are all much too melodramatic and whiny. I know that some people enjoy listening to that sort of thing, but as stated above, I don't. The lyrics:

Well it's only love it's not real anyways.
You're gonna die in somebody else's arms
And I have to live with that.

Epitomize my point. They cover all of the bases for sensational, suburban, self-centered music. An apathetic veil is thrown up with the lines about love's pseudo-existence, Death, and the fact that the artist's life is terrible because of the first two tenants.


I don't think they could look any more cliched

Tracks 4 and 5 are equally forgettable and soft-core morbid. The next track has the whiny, soft intro I come to expect from AFS, but with a catchy and likable background. I kept waiting for the track to start and for me to like it, but I found that the intro never ended. Funny that the only song I really liked until then on the album was 1:49 long.

End of the World has a satisfactory instrumental (as the rest of their discography), but it is unique in that the lyrics are delivered in a tolerable pace with some nice effects. I liked this track despite the presence of the aforementioned tenants of AFS. The track reminded me of some Lostprophets when they weren't screamo and weren't straight pop-rock. I have very few complaints about the song and won't avoid it when listening to my library.

The na-na-na-ing of the next song, Stars In Your Eyes, seemed a little out of place and a little bit more Bullets and Octane for me, though I do like the Bullets and Octane. Songs like this give me faith that the band will find itself later in their career. It was so close to being a good song in my opinion, and almost great. Some of the lyrics sounded almost Modest Mouse-ish with an almost Bullets sound. If they can later find a way to synthesis the sounds into their own unique new sound, I will become an avid fan of Armor For Sleep.

The band is musically solid, but I just don't like listening to the type of music they sometimes make. I am torn because I want to like them, but I just don't enjoy listening to their music. The instrumentals on all of their CDs are catchy (though sometimes repetitive) and the lyrics are sometimes poetic and solid, but whiny and annoying at others. Maybe if the band showed some consistency I could like them more.

It is also hard to say bad things against a band who references such a fantastic author as Chuck Palahniuk. In the months before Smile For Them was released, a video on their site featured a quote from the Chuck P. book Survivor. Times when they make such references give me hope for the band that maybe when they mature a bit (in sound and age) they will find better lyrics to supplement their promising instrumentals and propitious themes.

~Mike

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