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Blotto
Singles Collection 2004-2007 |
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Tracklist |
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01 - 4Rest
02 - Monkey
03 - Vibes By Vibes
04 - Buzzing
05 - Little More Than Before
06 - Be Nothing!
07 - Iowa
08 - Hey!
09 - Exodus
10 - Moving Is Changing
11 - Freedom
12 - Going Crazy |
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Review |
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4Rest is an incredibly important release for 10-Feet. It's the album that will complete their transformation from indies darlings to mainstream rock superstars. Having seen the sales figures for the album already, I can comfortably say that they have actually pulled it off. No one has ever really questioned the integrity or artistic relevance of 10-Feet, but then again, that's only because no one's ever really thought of the band needing those things. 4Rest is stupid fun just like their motto says, "of the kids, for the kids, by the kids." But you can't really spell "stupid fun" without stupid. Even if the release sells well and the band hasn't undergone any drastic shifts in style to get that status (aside from selling themselves to the two giants of Japan, anime and Godzilla), is 10-Feet still able to make a relevant and fun pop-punk album?
Well 10-Feet sure sounds a hell of a lot better than their top-selling pop-punk competition like Ellegarden or Nicotine, that's for sure. The reggae/hip-hop influences are still at full force, the little stylistic flourishes in each song go a long way in keeping 10-Feet from sounding as stale as their contemporaries. Guitarist/vocalist Takuma's diversity on the microphone has always been the band's strongest point and is also still present. If you didn't know it was all one man, you could easily think that there are at least a handful of vocalists laying down tracks but save for the choruses, it's all one crazy man. Predictably, 10-Feet's diverse take on pop-punk suffers a lot when they start to stray from the home genre. The band has attempted some new song-writing styles with mid-tempo rocker, "Buzzing," power ballad "Little More Than Before," and full out hard rocker "Be Nothing," but each of these attempts fall flat and make you wonder why all of the worst material was sequenced together. Thankfully the excellent "Iowa" and "Hey!" pick up the slack immediately, saving the flow of the album from too terrible of a slump. "Hey!" itself is easily the strongest song on the disc, even several months after it was released as a single. It's definitely one of 10-Feet's most enduring tunes next to "2%" and "River" from their previous album, Realife. Other highlights from the disc include "4Rest," "Monkey," and "Exodus." Almost all of the songs stand pretty well on their own, exorcising the problem with both of their previous albums. Unfortunately though, they've replaced the mediocrity with inconsistency.
In the end, 4Rest is a successful release. Sure, they're not pushing their game forward all that much, but most of the songs on here are not terrible. There are some new ideas and experiments with songs, some like "Moving Is Changing" and "Going Crazy" actually incorporate new pieces well, but most like "Little More Than Before" or "Be Nothing!" just fail completely. 4Rest is the album that will get 10-Feet huge, but it begs to be debated whether this is a good thing at all if it encourages them to continue writing ballads or even grow stagnant with playing exactly the same style. |
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