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2. Fade Away
3. Leading Me
4. Cold Sunshine
5. Gravity
6. Off My Mind
7. Take It Back
8. Run Too Far
9. The Line
10. Every Moment
11. Brand New Day
12. Begin Again
13. Until We Meet Again Jordan Critz is a young singer and songwriter whose talents fall far beyond the normal circumference of the common artist. Classically trained, he cites piano, guitar, and Celtic whistles as just a small portion of his large repertoire. Yet a glance at Nightlights and Melted Ice reveals that most of his work falls under the umbrella of showing untapped potential but not fully exploring it.
Describing Critz's sound would be ambiguous at best; and this is where Critz fails - he fails to distinguish himself from the hoards of guitar-playing singer-songwriters who have outstayed their welcome. With such diverse experiences to draw from, one can only frown at the uninspired opening tracks to Nightlights... "Somehow" is mediocre at best, "Leading Me" could have been molded into a nice ballad or a catchy radio-song but misses both, and "Cold Sunshine" is anything but clear: "you awaken me with cold sunshine"? There's a fine line between being artistic and being cryptic.
Throughout the rest of the album, Critz fails to mold his own identity into a style or sound. On one hand, the tracks "Take it Back" sounds like watered-down Rush of Fools material, and on the other extreme, "Brand New Day" presents Dashboard Confessional-like instrumentation. And "Fade Away" sounds like a Matthew West single. Some may propose that all of these influences diversify an artist, do they not? Sadly, no. After listening to Nightlights and Melted Ice, I don't remember anything about Jordan Critz or the music that he made.
Now this is not to say the whole album is disposable. "Gravity" showcases his easy switch from real voice to falsetto in an interesting way. This is the direction he should take with more of his songs in order to distinguish himself, by playing the cards according to his strengths. The rhythm section in "Off My Mind" adds a lot of epic quality to the song, and one can finally tell that he's classically trained. Some other tracks ("The Line") show potential, but are not well developed, like a short story that should be a novel or a thought that ought to be put into action.
Aside from those moments, however, the album is sounds generally uninspired. Tracks like "Run Too Far" prove this claim, and with the opening guitar riff of "Every Moment," I wondered to myself, "Haven't I heard this before... in this very same album?" What a bummer. With such a slick voice, Nightlights would resounds much more if only he had been smart to display more uniqueness - through the utilization of more falsetto, different instruments (where are the Celtic whistles?), or even the rearranging of songs to achieve more creative melodies ("Gravity"). I really hope Critz takes bolder steps in upcoming albums because I know that the talent is present even if the personality isn't.
- REVIEWER
Disclaimer: This review is based solely on the opinions of it's reviewer and is rated on how that reviewer enjoyed the content.
