Review: Synthetic 16

Synthetic 16
““Your Water””
(Resurrection AD)

Think about the name “Synthetic 16”…..what do you think of ?  I think of oil, as I suppose most guys would.  Well, even though the band is named after oil, they’re not really all that slick.  Their press release is pretty good in that they really try to get you pumped on the band, but I really don’t hear anything that hasn’t been done before.  As a matter of fact, they sound like many rock bands on the radio right now.  “Your Water” is an attempt at some new style which doesn’t really follow through.  They remind me a lot of the Goo Goo Dolls with a little Blink 182 thrown in.  In fact, I could swear I have heard a couple of their songs on the radio.  They are a good band with a solid sound and they deserve respect, but they need some major stylistic changes.  The first cut “Blew” is the best on the album with burning guitars that drive the song.  A few tracks later, “More than this” spices up the mix with a killer bass line that once again drives them into a small, controlled frenzy.   “Never get to know” is an incredibly slow and boring number and should be rewritten.  In fact, most of the album is entirely too slow.  They keep wanting to play harder, but for some reason back off.  It’s a struggle I really don’t want to listen to.  Now, “Push” kicked the hell out of me and made me reconsider my position, although I’ll still push for harder songs.  The fact is that this group is really great, but I think they need to speed up their songs and go a bit harder or they need to back off completely and become just like Matchbox 20.  However, without a change in direction they will never break through the wall of monotonous groups that sound exactly like them.  The best thing about this album is the cover; Misty Mundae is gorgeous (and naked).  But hey, I’m just a reviewer, what do I know?