Home Town Hero's brand of energetic alternative rock is an interesting entry into today's radio rock driven musical climate. Far more artistic than most of the drivel currently being peddled to the masses this quartet bring to mind the likes of the Smashing Pumpkins, early Radiohead, Weezer and more as they experiment with timing and dynamic song structures that stay sharp by utilizing a fairly straight forward approach.

With a brash vocal delivery that generally caters to a higher pitch, band frontman Aaron Bruno exerts himself through emphatic verses and elevating choruses that can at times border on melancholic bliss. The guitar work however is a bit more spiked and charges forth with lunging distorted swathes that propel the songs with considerable might while clean toned jangling chords and plucks help to diversify the assault. Steady handed bass playing rife with big roomy tones make up for the bulk of the low end included on the album, adding a distinct layer of density to the material on most occasions. In turn the drumming performance often contrasts its rhythm section counterpart by employing a wealth of stunted beats that are struck hard and played in vigorous yet ultimately compacted arrangements.

The band definitely craft some compelling music on this release such as the infectious aggression contained on the first single "Questions", or the spiraling intricacies offered up on the Radiohead reminiscent "Perfect Night". Such songs are surprisingly strong for an and up and coming group and suggest much more maturity than one would expect. With that said though the album seems to be plagued by a lot of songs that border on being filler, meandering through often uninteresting ideas which almost leave the listener wondering what went wrong. It's not that the material is poorly written though, rather it just feels like its been done before in a more creative fashion in the past, causing it to sound a lot less compelling than it could be. Such qualities are definitely a rampant problem on this release and though the groups punky energy and raw emotional tact can sometimes bring things back up to speed the overall momentum still generally suffers quite heavily as a result. As such its really hard to fully appreciate this album. Its true that various elements of it will appeal to different people but it's not that hard to fathom that most will only enjoy certain aspects of the bands sound and be alienated by the others. The stand out tracks included will easily garner the band some attention, but whether or not those songs are the only ones that will garner playing time from the listener is a question that only time can answer.