There's a hundred good reasons for the choices I've made (Actions - My Awesome Compilation)

Member Name: edinburgher

Product:	Actions - My Awesome Compilation
Date:	13/01/09 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Chirpy British alternative rock

Disadvantages: Perhaps limited mass appeal

A brilliant nugget of a record, My Awesome Compilation's (MAC from now on in) 2005 release 'Actions' was a breath of fresh air, with keyboard-driven tunes, polished production values provided by Hundred Reasons' Larry Hibbitt and a singer who for once wasn't afraid of sounding English!

The rise to the top (or what passes for it when British bands sign to relatively small record labels) wasn't easy and the group played in the region of 200 gigs before recording this, their debut album. They've also recorded a split release with the chart-topping Fallout Boy and have a new album due to come out this year.

While their poppy slices of alternative rock are decidedly satisfying, I can't help but feel that there's a limited appetite among the record buying public for this sort of sound. At a push (and I'm sorry for this guys), they could be described as Ben Folds Five meets Blink 182 with English accents. They're affable individuals and have great enthusiasm for their music, but there isn't a surfeit of amazing songs on the record.

'You Need Discipline', 'Put Up a Fight', 'Gave you Everything', 'Actions' and 'As Always' are brilliant, hummable and will stick in the memory - everything that's good about British alternative music.

My only fear is that they now have two choices - go down the 'Americanised' route of guitar-driven pop punk, or fade into the relative obscurity of other British bands whose rise to fame was paralleled only by their fall into relative obscurity. Hundred Reasons, anyone? In retrospect, the album's producer seems almost ironically placed - let's hope he guides his young charges towards a future that's a little more successful than his own band..

Summary: My Awesome Compilation bring the fun back to British music..