Review: The Great Heights Band – rad-pop.

April 25th, 2018 by WLOY Staff

Artist: The Great Heights Band
Album: rad-pop.
Release Date: 04/20/2018
RIYL: With The Punches, Seaway, Man Overboard
Rating: 9/10

Anticipating the release of their latest album, The Great Heights Band performed an acoustic set at our WLOY coffeehouse Thursday night event, on April 19, 2018. Vocalists and guitarists Neal Karkhanis and Eric Taft performed a copious amount of songs off of rad-pop., which was released at midnight on April 20, 2018. Karkhanis and Taft exhibited the perfect amount of energy for a coffeehouse event by providing awesome music, telling stories of how their songs came to be, and interacting with the crowd. They were obviously performers and musicians at heart.

There’s something about an acoustic pop-punk sound that can only be described as freaking’ sweet. After hearing rad-pop. live and acoustic, and now off of their record, I really have an appreciation for this album and the talent of The Great Heights Band. Two tracks that really stood out to me were “Straight to Hell” and “ All In.”

Opening up the album with a pop-punk sound is “Straight to Hell.” It definitely has a sound similar to that of the music that Weezer has produced on their last two albums in regards to that alternative kind of electronic music. The lyrics to the chorus have a straight-up sentiment: “this world’s gone straight to Hell/and I don’t care at all/if we just keep things real.” I mean, the lyrics are pretty accurate—at least they are in my world as finals are approaching.

“All In” has an upbeat, blissfully distorted, rock sound. Both the rhythm guitar and the lead guitar along with the drums and cool use of the symbols convey a sound that you’d want to hear if you were about flip over a table and break things—in a good, happy way. The lyrics, “I’m all in/so come on!” just make you want to join in on the trouble-making festivities.

Overall, rad-pop. is exactly what it sounds like—a rad mixture of rock and punk with pop influences. That being said, there is variety of sound across the songs, which keeps the songs from sounding the same. Although I do have to say, “All In” and “What’s Real” sound alike, but they are consecutive songs on the album, and I think they are meant to flow into one another. rad-pop. is easy to get into and fall in-love with. I found myself singing along to the songs with only one-to-two prior listens. So there you go my friends, go forth listening to rad-pop. and conquer.

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