The Track Record - The Track Record EP

Genre rock Publisher Rushmore Records External Links Official Website Rushmore Records

I have just broken up with my girlfriend. After grinding my A Silver Mountain Zion debut album into the ground (and now needing a new turntable), I remembered that I had to review The Track Record's self-titled debut EP. I thought that it might be somewhat beneficial to review a power pop/emo sounding record in my current situation, so here we are.

The Track Record are a fairly new band, two years old, hailing from Maryland. Their debut is released on Rushmore Records, a subsidiary of Drive-Thru Records. Drive-Thru is the label whose flagship act happens to be Chris Carabba, otherwise known as Dashboard Confessional. With this in mind, I had expected an acoustic affair. TTR offered none of this; their music was reminiscent of New Found Glory and the like. This type of band reminds me of NoFX if they took themselves seriously. That having been said, I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing in this case.

The band calls its music "philosophical pop," with lyrics such as, "It's so crazy how suicide occupies the minds of so, so many happy people...," the opening line to the opening track. This is sung over arpeggiated, clean guitar chords, with slightly distorted power chords holding the movement. The two guitarists in this band, Rob and Rob, are both accomplished, as far as studio recording goes. Drummer Hasani Martin holds a straight 4/4 beat with standard adornments in his playing, while looking like the east coast version of The Blood Brothers' Mark Gajadhar. The vocal duties are held by bassist Michael Strackbein, whose voice fits the music, although he can be a bit whiny at times.

As the album progresses, I felt more and more that it was written by teenage poets (I was wary though, as the aforementioned Carabba is pushing thirty). The song "Talk Radio" describes feminine depression/suicide/self-mutilation due to a societal standard that almost no female can attain. This is a valid conversation topic in today's society; however I think that it is also an argument for a society that is media driven. I mean simply that the topics expressed in this album are far reaching in a MTV mid-to-upper middle class suburban kind of way. The last song, "Letters of Summer," is an allegorical song about a lost loved one, comparing loss to a dying September summer. After hearing the lines, "Fall asleep with me just one more time/Tell me that we'll always be best friends," I cheer up. I feel that life isn't as bad. I can't tell if it is due to this album or the bottle of vodka I just imbibed, so I'll let you be the judge. As for The Track Record, they are currently readying their full length debut, and preparing to rock this summer's Warped tour.