The Used have managed to whip up quite a bit of interest in their short time together, a task which is by no means easily achieved when considering the fact that they hail from the Mormon state of Utah. But despite such a desolate location the band still made waves amongst various internet fan communities when their demo popped up online in mp3 format, so much so in fact that this album has been rushed to stores to meet the demand. Essentially a combination of groups like Glassjaw, The Deftones, Jimmy Eat World, Finch, Snot and more, the band juxtapose raw metal aggression with emo and punk styled passages to create a blend of music that is both current sounding and in your face.

Band frontman Bert McCracken oozes with a certain sense of emotional vulnerability that is conveyed vividly through his tormented over the top screams and passionate sullen croons, making the album an often manic bi-polar styled affair. The guitar riffs only accentuate his performance by drawing from the post hardcore/punk school of thought with sparse and vicious playing chaotically mashing together distorted jangles and fearsome riffs in a frenzied pace, yet somehow ultimately keeping a loosely regimented momentum in place above all. This then allows the warm, laxly played bass lines to assert themselves and even add a somewhat bouncy feel to the bulk of the tracks on hand, while also implementing their own sense of determined low end vigor. Even the drumming tends to chart a sort of course of its own as well and utilizes a lot of off timed beats and straight ahead percussive stampedes to charge up the songs while also diversifying them as well.

Indeed this album follows a weaving course that jumps from one emotional extreme to another and its this unpredictability, plus the overall variety on display, that makes it quite impressive. As the group indulge themselves in some extra instrumentation such as the inclusion of piano on "Blue And Yellow" and strings on "On My Own", they also help their music to transcend past that of their more vanilla sounding peers and put themselves into a different league in the fastly crowding emocore ranks. With all this in play they easily have a good chance at building themselves up a large fan base as the mainstream interest in the style of music which they play is definitely on the rise as of late. This is also unfortunately something that may be put against them as well though as some may just write them off as just another band trying to cash in on what's currently "in". Such criticisms will likely be cleared up after a few listens however as there is little question as to whether or not they are authentic in their craft. Sure it may be a bit commercial at times and fairly rough around the edges as well, but its also all the more accessible and easier to digest as a result, making it an album that will likely catch the ears of a wide variety of people and perhaps even motivate them to dig deeper within the currently burgeoning scene.