Band:	The Color Fred
Album:	Bend to Break

Once I found out Fred Mascherino, better known as the former guitarist/vocalist from Taking Back Sunday, was releasing an album; I got excited. Taking Back Sunday is one of my favorite bands of the past. And as much as I liked the band pre-Fred, I think they got much better after he joined, releasing arguably their best album, “Where You Want to Be”.

As you can probably tell by now, I had big expectations for this album, and I think any fan of Taking Back Sunday would as well. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite meet my expectations. I think it is partially because I was listening for something to go above and beyond Taking Back Sunday. It has a lot of the traits that made Taking Back Sunday a great band, call and answer vocals, break downs, and up-tempo choruses. Where it lacks is in the rawness and emotion that they had, I think largely due to the lack of Adam Lazzara’s vocals.

On its own, forgetting for a minute that he used to be a member of Taking Back Sunday, the album is good. The first three songs, “Get Out”, “If I Surrender”, and “Hate to See Me Go”, are pretty straight-forward pop-rock songs. They follow the typical verse-chorus format, with a cut-tempo break down thrown in each for good measure. “Hate to See Me Go” is probably the best pop-rock song on the album. But by the fourth song, “It Isn’t Me”, I was definitely ready for a change of pace, and the album delivered that. The largely piano based track, highlights a different side of Fred’s writing style, one that is not so poppy. It is definitely one of the stand out songs on the album.

The album falls back into the pop-rock formula after “It Isn’t Me” until a surprising guitar solo in track seven “I Didn’t See”. This is followed by “Empty House”, a great emotional acoustic song, which builds to an electric climax. The entrance riff of the electric guitar combined with what sounds like an organ, take what was an already great song to another level.

“Minnesota” is a decent song. There isn’t anything overly incredible about it, but it does have some interesting guitar work. This is then followed by “I’ll Never Know”, another acoustic song. This one is very reminiscent of “New American Classic” off of the “Where You Want to Be” album by TBS. There is even a sense of Rivers Cuomo in the vocals. The use of the strings, the finger-picked guitar, and some interesting percussion make this song a pleasant surprise and my favorite on the album.

Overall, after listening to the album, I couldn’t help but think how dated it sounded. It would be more at home with releases by Yellowcard or other like artists from the early 2000’s. Not that there is anything wrong with that, the album is very catchy, and many of those artists garnered mainstream success and sold millions of albums. I just wish there were more surprises.

“Bend to Break” - Tracklist (*recommended tracks)

• 1. Get Out
• 2. If I Surrender
• 3. Hate to See You Go
• 4. It Isn’t Me*
• 5. Complaintor
• 6. The Tragedy
• 7. I Didn’t See*
• 8. Empty House*
• 9. Minnesota*
• 10. I’ll Never Know*
• 11. Don’t Pretend*

Fred Mascharino on the cover of Alternative Press this month.
The Color Fred’s MySpace

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