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Tracklisting
1. Basbhat
2. Warm Me Up
3. Heaven for the Weather
4. Edinboro
5. Hell to Sell
6. Ether
7. What Gets You Through the Night
8. Shady Business
9. Make It Rain
10. Have Gun, Will Travel
The Audition's second studio album, 'Champion' is an uncomplicated slice of pop-rock, crammed full of funky, stop-start-stop guitars and infectious choruses. While this certainly makes for fun listening, the fact remains that there are a million other bands currently making this sort of music, and a good number of them are doing it much better. With this in mind, it's hard to believe that The Audition haven't stepped up their game since debut album 'Controversy Loves Company,' which was also good fun, but not particularly memorable.
Things get off to a great start with 'Basbhat' and 'Warm Me Up,' which are either the strongest songs on the album, or have the advantage of being the listener's introduction to a formula that is then used time and time again. You already know everything about this album after listening to just these two songs, which begs the question: why bother listening to the rest of the album?
'Champion' largely consists of stop-start-stop guitars, cheesy verses and sugar-rush choruses. Danny Stevens provides the infectious, poppy vocals, falsettoing and 'oooh'-ing his way through the lyrics in way that ensures they'll be lodged in your head after the very first listen. The first few songs that adhere to this formula are really good fun, but halfway into 'Champion' the formula begins to wear a bit thin as your appetite for middle-of-the-road pop-rock is well and truly sated. The main problem with 'Champion' is that there are none of the high-points that albums of this genre now need in order to stand out from the crowd. The result is that 'Champion' sounds something like Fall Out Boy's 'From Under The Cork Tree' without 'Sugar, We're Goin Down' or 'Dance, Dance.'
Danny Stevens' vocals are both 'Champion's greatest strength and its greatest weakness. Stevens is essentially a pop singer, and his voice is perfectly suited for songs such as these. He also has an uncanny knack for pitching his voice just right to give the lyrics maximum appeal and addictiveness. On many occasions, Steven's vocal talents are the only thing that saves 'Champion' from becoming thoroughly passable. However, the fact that his vocals are so crisp and clear, means that the corny lyrics are well and truly at the forefront of the songs, where you cannot help but notice their inadequacy. No slickly smart Panic at the Disco-style wordplay here; Stevens is quite content to build his songs around some pretty obvious rhymes; the "baby/save me" chorus of 'Heaven For The Weather' being a particularly cringe-worthy example. Steven's vocals will probably be running through your head for days to come following just one listen, but no doubt you'll be cringing as they do so.
Deviations from the aforementioned formula are rare, but 'What Gets You Through the Night' deserves a mention for largely shunning the stop-start-stop guitars that begin to wear a bit thin halfway through the album, in favour of a rounder, more fleshed-out sound. 'Have Gun, Will Travel' is a mild stab at pop-punk, and perhaps hints at things to come on future The Audition albums, and 'Warm Me Up's subtle RnB vibe works surprisingly well, although, as is the case with all the songs on this album, The Audition really should avoid those instrumental sections, at least until they can write songs that have more musical depth and complexity.
The Audition are hardly going to shake the scene up with this offering but, clearly, they're not trying to. Every song on this album, when heard in isolation, is good, uncomplicated fun, even if after listening to 'Champion' in its entirety you can't help but realise just how paint-by-numbers it is. Fans of Paramore, Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco and the like, will no doubt stick this on from time to time and thoroughly enjoy it, but as long as the aforementioned bands are still producing music, this is going to be no-one's favourite album.
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