Misser

Every Day I Tell Myself I’m Going To Be A Better Person

The opening track of Misser’s full-length debut, the mopey, acoustic “Permanently,” surprisingly resembles something the Lawrence Arms' Brendan Kelly would compose. After that, though, Every Day I Tell Myself I'm Going To Be A Better Person settles into a style one might expect from a pair of songwriters who currently spend time in Transit (Tim Landers) and This Time Next Year (Brad Wiseman): It’s noodly, melodic pop-rock with generous emo and gentle punk influence. While the potential's certainly there to produce the cream of the crop, the execution isn't quite always on.

If there are any similarities between Misser and Landers' day job, it's probably in the neighborhood of Transit's 2010 full-length, Keep This To Yourself: With its tempo occasionally changing to double-time and call-and-response vocals, “Reconnect This” is practically the spiritual descendent of “Please, Head North.” Meanwhile, “Time Capsules” is the best song Hot Rod Circuit forgot to write during their Vagrant Records days, and “Stay Asleep” is another highlight, a rare moment of more languid, careful restraint. Penultimate track “Sanity” revisits the vibe of “Permanently,” but in a much more unique way—something we wish the band would explore more often.

If there are growing pains on Every Day, it might be the album’s lack of musical or tonal variety. Landers and Wiseman trade off lines at a pretty consistent, rapid rate; maybe it wouldn't hurt to have let either member monopolize a song here and there. The lyrical clichés scattered throughout the record are detrimental, as well. In “Just Say It,” the duo ask, “Just like when a tree falls and no one is around: When it hits the ground, does it even make a sound?” Then there's the “I'm so sick of the songs on the radio” refrain in “I'm Really Starting To Hope The World Ends In 2012,” which cops Fred Mascherino's habit of taking a hook and overextending it just a bit too much. There has to be some sort of irony there, especially when the band complain of Auto-Tune overuse on a record that sounds just a little too pristine to have been made without at least a smidgen of pitch correction.

Rise http://www.riserecords.com

“Time Capsules”