You Me At Six : "Truth Decay"

These guys are still keeping their Myspace page going with the big arena flair of their anthemic brand of pop punk. At this refined stage, it is more like a pop rock band that remembers what emo used to be. All things late 90s are seeing a come back to the time is right for these guys. It seems the British were late to the game when it comes to this sort of thing, so they never let it go to pick it back up The choruses are to be bright and happy for me, in terms of my personal taste but they do it well. They even have a song called "God Bless the 90s Kids", They touch the bounds of what I can endure in terms of the pop nature to what they do with the song" After Love in the After Hours". The hooks are along the lines of what bands like Coheed or even Paramore refined.

When they lean into their pop sensibilities it plays to their favor on "No Future? Yeah Right".  The chorus could hit in a tighter manner, but the song is more effective than most. The way the song builds at the end reminds me of nu-metal. "heartLess" finds the songwriting dialed in to where it needs to be. This proves to make it the best song so far. Is it more pop minded? Sure, but do what works, as it seems true to who this band is. "Who Needs Revenge When I've Got Ellen Rae" sounds like Fall Out Boy when we get to the chorus, which leans the song in the direction of your more generic music in this sonic sphere. "Breakdown" finds an almost hip hop feel crawling into their formula. It does show how close nu metal comes to crossing over with this sort of thing when it builds. 

At times they do give the verses room for melody to breathe in an interesting fashion, but it typically gets mucked up when the chorus tries to hard for an audience on the radio that has aged out. "mydopamine" sounds almost like a Weezer song and proves the point I just made in terms of who their target audience may or may not be. This continues to plague the album, as the major chords, yearning for airplay, carry the songs with more of a skip in their step than what sounds good to my ears. Adding electronic elements favors "Ultraviolence" by casting more of a shadow over the mood. In doing so they place themselves in a  more effective creative climate. They allow the mood to simmer down a bit to close the album out. It almost feels like one of Halsey's more inspired moments.  I will give this album an 8, it's well done but works off too many safe radio ready formulas.