We've Got A Big Mess On Our Hands (Santi - The Academy Is)

Member Name: rleigh

Product:	Santi - The Academy Is
Date:	04/04/08 (53 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: One track is excellent and a couple more are reasonably enjoyable.

Disadvantages: Poorly produced, too many things going on at once within the sound.

'Santi' is the second studio album from Chicago's The Academy Is..., it was produced by Butch Walker and takes on more of a rock approach than the bands first album 'Almost Here' did. The first album was very much rooted in the pop punk genre, but when you listen to 'Santi' you can hear right from the offset that there has been quite a stylistic change here. The album was released in April 2007 through the record label Fueled By Ramen, a third album is set to be released in 2008 but a release date for this has yet to be announced.

The first time I heard a track from this 'Santi' album I have to say that I was extremely disappointed. I was a huge fan of 'Almost Here', the band beautifully glided through the pop punk gems there but here there is just not the same fluidity. The album has grown on me a little more than when I first heard it, but still I feel that this was not a great follow up from the band and is in fact somewhat of a sophomore slump. In 'Santi' The Academy Is... just don't seem as enthusiastic as they were when they first emerged with their début, a lot of the fun seems to have been taken out of the music in favour of adopting a more 'mature' approach. When bands 'grow up' and put forward a greater 'maturity' in their sound it can go one of two ways. Sometimes the change in approach is hugely beneficial, and other times a change in direction can ruin a once excellent sound. With 'Santi' I feel The Academy Is... made a great mistake, there was nothing at all wrong with their first album and yet in changing sound drastically the band have not made effective use of their talent.

'We've Got A Big Mess On Our Hands' lives up to its name and is perhaps one of the messier efforts from this album. The track is three and a half minutes in length, and front man William Beckett wails his way through the vocals here. With 'Almost Here' the voice of this man was excellent, here though he seems adamant on attempting things with his voice that he just isn't at all capable of pulling off. It sounds as though someone has trodden on his little toe and he has here let out a shout and a scream, it does not sound at all like a track that should be included on the second album of a fairly successful American pop rock band. It sounds as though The Academy Is... were here trying to recreate the sounds of the successful bands My Chemical Romance and AFI also, they ended up with egg on their face though as it just doesn't work out for them.

'You Might Have Noticed' is in my opinion up there amongst the best that the band has to offer with 'Santi'. This is more along the lines of where The Academy Is... left off with their 'Almost Here' album, and although the guitars sound a little too heavy for the track given the softness of the voice of William Beckett, this is still one track from this album that I do greatly enjoy. The production is a little off I feel, the vocals are perhaps a little too quiet and the guitars a little loud, but overall it is a pretty enjoyable offering. I feel that it is perhaps the production of 'Santi' that lets the band down so largely, it does not seem to suit them at all and in this album the band therefore sound out of their depth.

'Everything We Had' is the only track from this album that I feel is not spoilt in any way. The vocals of William Beckett are very much at the fore, and the guitars provide a gentle backing. This track portrays the band at their very best, it stands strong up there amongst the best that the 'Almost Here' album has to offer, it progresses well and builds in strength as the track progresses in order to reach the perfect climax. This would have worked wonderfully well I feel as a closing track, it was not used in that way however but is definitely an excellent offering from the band.

Musically 'LAX To O'Hare' is quite impressive, the band here shows their talent in putting forward some excellent drum beats, fantastic guitar riffs, and at times an impressive vocal performance also; the production however is horrible. The levels are all wrong here and everything sounds out of kilter, underneath it all some great music can just about be heard but because of the messiness of the production it is all a little over complicated. The vocals have an echo about them throughout the whole of this album, I'm not too sure what the band was going for with this but it definitely doesn't sound quite right. The purity with which William Beckett bellows his lines is here lost due to the odd means of production, it's not nice to hear and is at times incredibly difficult to listen to without wanting to cover over your ears.

With 'Santi' I feel that The Academy Is... are perhaps trying a few too many things at once, resultantly it doesn't quite sound right and is in fact all a little messy. The music is really rather adventurous here, perhaps a little too much so and for the most part it just doesn't quite work out for the band. They seem to be trying to copy the formula of successful bands in the genre rather than sticking to their own script and continuing in producing music that they are actually any good at. It's not all bad, but it's certainly not great. The Academy Is... disappoint on far more occasions than they impress here, a couple of tracks emerge fairly successfully but even these tend to be let down by the overall production of the album. Only 'Everything We Had' would I really recommend listening to, there are a couple of other tracks here that should please fans of the first album, but nothing other than this one track that is particularly impressive on the whole. 'Neighbors' is fairly decent, elements of the music disappoint however and the same can be said of a number of tracks here. 'Santi' is not an album I would say I loathe, but definitely isn't one that I love and due to it's inconsistency and messy production values this is really not a release that I can recommend.

Summary: 'Santi' is not an album that I would recommend, the production is poor and the album unexciting.