Band:	Alive in Wild Paint
Album:	Ceilings

Alive in Wild Paint is a band that I don’t understand. They’re packaging is very modern, their name is very modern and even they’re marketing is very modern. Why then when I put the album on am I transported back in time five years?

This is not to say that the album is all together horrible; it just reminds me of a time when Dashboard Confessional ruled teenagers bedrooms because they were too sad to leave. The music itself is very well produced and I must give kudos to the team that brought this album to life.

The musicians on the other hand need to wake up. The breathy vocals, over dramatic lyrics and depressingly slow music is obviously targeted at an audience that has either grown up or are desperately clinging on to the dreary past they can’t seem to let go of.

There are bands playing to the same audience that are producing music in such a way that incorporates new trends and sometimes even new subject matter. One could look to a band like The Receiving End of Sirens or Bloc Party as music that is both vastly emotional and also musically interesting.

Travis Bryant’s voice is the worst part of the experience. I can’t deny my roots as a music appreciator over the years and say that I didn’t have a Dashboard album in my rotation but at least Chris Carrabba challenged his vocal range. Bryant merely adds a full breath to the end of his vocals to add emphasis to what he’s trying to say and it gets old. Fast.

Stand out tracks include “Anxious Disease” and “Ceilings” but I have to emphasize that there is a shrinking demographic who will purchase this music or go to see the concert live. There is promise here but a sweeping change is needed to make this music current.

“Ceilings” - Tracklist
(* recommended tracks)

1. Ceilings*
2. Crystal Selves
3. God Gave Me A Gun
4. Anxious Disease*
5. II
6. Traffic
7. Sleep With Your Soul In
8. Forecasting
9. Everywhere, An Ocean
10. Children of Divorce
11. Cold Spell
12. A Vespertine Haunting

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