Janus - Right Red Return Review
Posted by Jesse Coy on 10.17.2009
Four fellows from Chicago dish out with their brand of alterna-metal, emo-hardcore blend in a fashionably fetching red design.
Janus Right Red Return
Realid Records
September 2009
1. Six Letters Sent
2. If I Were You
3. Maybe It's You
4. Say It
5. Eyesore
6. Skin Deep
7. Your Arms
8. The Nerve
9. Stranger
10. 100 Years
I’m going to delve right into the meat of my reaction to this album, and also the broader range of bands who are into this brand of “explore my feelings” sort of ambiguous lyric writing. I’m going to make a bold suggestion to such bands, which is to pick up a newspaper. Read about what’s going on around you right now. And then write a song about it. Intelligent lyrics about relevant things, bigger than one’s own self-therapy session over their own personal woes and problems… it’s nothing that’s outdated. We’ve always had it, and hopefully, we will continue to have it, or get more bands on that pendulum swinging away from self-involvement, and more toward observation of the wider world and what’s going down.
You had countless punk bands from both sides of the shore doing, such as the Clash or the Dead Kennedys, in the late 70’s to early 80’s. You had real hardcore bands like Sick Of It All or Agnostic Front talking about problems and realities far more deserving of attention than this sort of emo thing. You had thrash bands in the late 80’s through the early 90’s with songs about what was happening in the wider world. You had bands like Rage Against the Machine and System of a Down in the late 90’s to early 00’s… same thing. It’s all about content, baby.
So here’s Janus. I will say from the get-go, great packaging design. Based on that design, I thought we might have some vaguely political and lyrically interesting songs. Now I’m not going to deny that musically, they sound somewhat interesting. Yet I’ve heard newer bands in the past year or so make their debut or issue a second album with this same sort of formula, mixing together a number of musical styles with a far more interesting end result (such as Suicide City, MadLove, or Omni). With some of those bands, you had the lyrics running somewhat as ambiguous, but far less “me and my feelings” oriented.
Musically, the opening track “Six Letters Sent” starts off well enough for the first thirty seconds, and there are some nice instrumentation touches not only in this song, but throughout the whole album. Only, I’ve heard that with some of the recent bands I mentioned above, and they sort of had a bit more consistency with what additional instrumental flourishes they used. And then we have the lead vocalist, Dave Scotney. He sounds fine. He sounds totally competent. But the truth is, it’s a vocal style I’ve heard before. Actually, not just once before, but dozens of times. It’s just a little too generic, the alterna-metal style with a touch of emo.
This leads right into “If I Were You,” and once more, it’s not that I have no idea of what the song might be trying to say… it’s just that I don’t care. You want to sing about real rage or frustration? Unemployment has already topped 10% in the U.S. It just makes it a little hard for me to take the sensitivity of a character with fingernails painted black and black-rimmed eyes too seriously, as seen in their video for this one. I think the video knocked the song down a notch in my book (although once more, nice placement of odd keyboard effects in the track).
(just a little too sensitive and self-reflecting for me)
They also have a video for “Eyesore,” which I will say is nicely designed artistic wise. It’s got a very cool look to it. And even though the song is about… well, the same sort of “my feelings” that much of the songs on this one are about… I rather like the song. It’s probably because I prefer the more shout-metal style over the “I’m sensitive” alterna-metal crooning. I also quite like “The Stranger,” in part due to Johnny Salazar’s drumming (solid and interesting throughout this release, by the way), and in part because of… yep, once more the keyboard or strange instrument effects they use.
The album’s low point? “The Nerve,” based not on the music of the song, but rather, may I ask… is this high school again? The narrator of the song hears something she said about him through some other girl and is all upset about that? Okay, lovely. And I should care or take this song seriously, why?
Ah, come on, guys… the music on this album deserves far better lyrics. But maybe this “my feelings” emotional thing is their schtick. Maybe it’s your schtick, too. You should get this album for the next time you have a breakup with a girl, and you can lock yourself in a closet, playing this one over and over again, and feel much better when the weekend is over. Don’t worry. Mom and dad will knock on your closet door to check up on you. That is, if the house you, mom, and dad live in hasn’t been foreclosed already. You may not be able to afford your black fingernail paint any longer, be that the case.
As for my point, it’s quite simple. The band sounds promising. Let them hang out on the welfare line for a year or two, maybe cold and hungry, with no place to live, and then reassemble them, and let’s see what they write about. Because personally, I, like you, and like any other folks out there, have my own set of problems. I want to be entertained or informed by music. I’m not so much into listening in on someone’s personal therapy sessions over getting dumped.
The 411: If you love emo and alterna-metal, you may love this. Or maybe you’ve already heard it. Musically, they do some nice experimentation with a variety of instruments and effects. That’s what I like about this one. But the focus of the lyrics and the delivery of the vocalist brings them down to the comfortably solid, yet perfectly acceptable range of average, or “could have a song on the next superhero movie soundtrack, but doesn’t have much staying power” level.
