Well, with a band name like Movie Star Kiss, I can’t say that the mainstream songs I encountered when listening to this CD were much of a surprise. That is, they sound exactly as what their name alludes to: theme music in the background of a Hollywood movie scene. This punk/pop 10-track album is precisely that, a punk/pop 10-track album.
To give credit where credit is due, this album is upbeat, it’s active, it’s consistent, and it’s full of catchy tunes in the same vain as Weezer or Simple Plan. It’s all things that most people (and by most people I mean too-much-mascara-wearing teenage girls) go absolutely wild for. I, unfortunately, tend to appreciate the off-the-beaten-track type of tunes, more than the coasting-along-a-freshly-paved-highway types.
I also found the lyrics to be uninspiring. Lines such as “she’s my weekend friend now she’s starting to depend on me” and “these days won’t last forever, we’re running this together” are mundane fillers-in of feet, used purely for their syllabic potential.
Appropriately titled, Starting Over is the first full-length album for this foursome who went formerly under the name of Supercrush. In recognizing that it is my musical biases that keep me from giving this CD five stars of five, and in recognizing also that this album fits the criteria for receiving airtime from local mix music radio stations, I’ll end by saying that Starting Over is recommended for those planning long commutes by car, for blockbuster lovers, and for anyone under the age of 16.
