The Forecast

In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen

[4/5] While the pop-culture lens focuses on Hawthorne Heights, HH’s unheralded labelmates the Forecast are quietly hitting their stride. Last year’s Late Night Conversations was the best Victory Records debut album no one noticed, and it’ll be a shame if In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen meets a similar fate. Hailing from Illinois, the Forecast play the sort of melodic, uniquely Midwestern emo-rock that was the stock in trade for bands such as Hey Mercedes and the Get Up Kids. And while Conversations found the group wearing such influences on their sleeves, Gunmen is more subtle and eclectic–especially when the Forecast explore rootsy alt-country (e.g., “Welcome Home” and “Everything We Want To Be”). It’s also more tuneful and better recorded than Conversations–and though time will ultimately tell, songs such as “One Hundred Percent” and “And We All Return To Our Roots” have huge-sounding hooks that should finally help the Forecast get the attention they deserve.
(VICTORY) Kyle Ryan