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2. Kill Your Own Despair
3. We All Need
4. Seasons Of Grey
5. This Mystery
6. Reveal Your Love
7. Emptiness
8. Back To The Start
9. Faster, Faster
10. Like The Rain
11. Lamps
12. About You Esterlyn may sound like a new name, but surely some of us remember the alternative-rock band Grand Prize that was under Jaci Velasquez's Apostrophe Records. Here we find the band under a new label and name, but do we find them reinventing its sound as well? This was my main question as I dived into Lamps.
That question was easily answered only a few tracks into the record. The low vocals in opener "Tie the Leaves" got me thinking that Grand Prize was back, but the song threw a curveball and a sudden transition to high notes turned the song into a livelier tune. Luke's upper register is featured once again on "Kill Your Own Despair," the random falsetto notes giving the song a nice twist. This second track maintains musical integrity while featuring lyrics like "you'll have a love again" that promise great things for this song if it was launched into mainstream.
Just when I thought that the whole album would be in the vein of the first two tracks (which are solid, I might add), "We All Need" shuffles it up... and not exactly for the better. It's a good catchy song, but this lead single definitely has Luke Caldwell sounding like he's singing while eating a fruit. Then mediocrity ensues. It becomes a whole canvas of grey, a chain of songs that I have no opinions about because the songs prominently bad or good enough to be featured. "This Mystery," "Reveal Your Love" (at least its instrumentation is great), "Back to the Start," and "Like the Rain"... I cannot recall any of them right now, a mere day after listening to the record.
Notice I skipped "Seasons of Grey," which grows after a couple of listens and has a nice bridge, and "Emptiness," a catchy cry for help: "emptiness is taking me, my spirit is still yelling... give me purpose." Ending the set is "Lamps." Right from the bat, its cello introduction grabbed my attention; with relevant lyrics ("this life can be different, forget what we know, it's not enough to just breathe anymore") and a sound that is set apart from the rest of Lamps, if there are any hit singles on this album, this title track would be it.
So here you have it - a mixed bag. Some of the songs are ridiculously well-crafted, but a large majority fall under the label of "just being there." I think Grand Prize has really hit a vocal home-run with the album (evidently Caldwell's higher register is much more effective... listen to "Like the Rain"), but the band could do so much more in fine-tuning its voice into a niche in the industry, so that when listening to the album, people will cease to say, "That sounds like the Jonas Brothers" ("Tie the Leaves") or, "That sounds like Simple Plan" ("Back to the Start," "Faster, Faster"). Hopefully there will come a day when people will say, "That sounds likes Grand Prize." Personally, I think that day is near.
- Clem
Disclaimer: This review is based solely on the opinions of it's reviewer and is rated on how that reviewer enjoyed the content.
