Mayday Parade - A Lesson In Romantics (2007)

Grades:
Overall: B
Music: B+
Vocals: D+
Lyrics: B+
Creativity: B
Catchiness: A-

Good band names catch your eye. You see them and you know that you want to give the band a try. The best ones are not too artistic, but not too simple - not too odd, but not too normal. Mayday Parade's contains an abundance of assonance (great phrase there), and when I first saw it, I knew I'd probably like them. Call it a musician's hunch, or intuition - who knows. But the first song I put on, two years ago, was "Jamie All Over," from the band's debut album A Lesson In Romantics. I immediately fell in love with the song's eager strains of "please don't tell me me that I'm dreamin'/ when all I ever wanted was to dream another sunset with you." It is a love song of epic pop/punk proportions, told about a romance in SoCal ("down and to the left," how you'd see it on a map).

And though "Jamie All Over" is still one of my favorite songs of all-time, I rarely replay the rest of the record. For the uninitiated, Derek Sanders' nasal vocals may be a bit too much. The band's reliance on power chords and their scene-sound also will turn off some listeners. But for others, they have quickly grown to "favorite band" status, encouraged by the in-your-face style that has been lost from pop/punk as it goes more and more mainstream. They're also unafraid to take some risks - "I'd Hate To Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About," in spite of its overly long scene title, features a pleasant guitar solo, and "Jersey," one of the album's best tracks, builds from near a capella to a full-blown rock chorus.

There are plenty of missteps too, though. Most notably, Derek (maybe because he's insecure with his voice?) has multi-tracked almost all of his vocals too many times, creating chaos and severe annoyance for audiophiles. Piano ballad "Miserable At Best" is fortunately missing this problem, but its emotive lyrics come across as over-the-top rather than sensitive. Other tracks like "Take This To Heart" and "Walk On Water Or Drown" are simply mediocre.

For the most part, though, A Lesson In Romantics is highly enjoyable. Ignoring how easy it is to make fun of their Panic At The Disco-song-titles, "If You Wanted A Song Written About You, All You Had To Do Was Ask" tells the listener "I hope you like your pictures facing down, as even broken hearts may have their doubts" over a song reminiscent of Yellowcard minus the violin. "Black Cat," another favorite, begins almost Brand New-ish and explodes into a high-energy chorus that makes sense despite its nonsense: "you're like a black cat with a black backpack full of fireworks, and you're gonna burn this city down right now." Hopefully Mayday Parade's sophomore effort will surpass this one, but they're already well on their way to establishing themselves in the scene. Maybe they'll even go mainstream and bring back some well-written pop/punk.

For early 2000s pop/punk-lovers, 22-word song titles, rockin' it out on a summer day. Try "Jamie All Over," "Jersey," and "Black Cat."

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