CD Reviews

Armor for Sleep

Smile for Them | Sire

By MIKAEL WOOD | December 26, 2007

2.5 Stars

“This city was the blueprint for Hell,” sings Ben Jorgensen in “Williamsburg,” the second track on Armor for Sleep’s major-label debut. Not sure what the denizens of that hipster-choked Brooklyn enclave ever did to Jorgensen or his bandmates (beyond helping to provide them with an audience big enough to warrant a major-label debut), but it’s kind of refreshing to hear a bitchy emo record that doesn’t direct all its ire toward the heartless females who exist only to ruin sensitive young men’s lives. Not much else about Smile for Them veers off the path previously beaten by Armor for Sleep’s peers in Coheed and Cambria, Taking Back Sunday, and Saves the Day; if you like chugging guitars, whiny vocals, and big choruses — and, hey, who doesn’t? — you’ll find much to admire here. Still, “Williamsburg” suggests that Jorgensen has uncommon potential just waiting to be tapped — maybe someday he’ll become the Randy Newman of the MySpace set.

ARMOR FOR SLEEP + FOUR YEAR STRONG + VANNA + VALENCIA | Worcester Palladium, 261 Main St, Worcester | December 29 | 617.931.2000

Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Music, Randy Newman, More

| More

Most Popular

The Current Issue

Table of Contents

Cover Archive

Masthead | Authors | Contact us

Blogs

Where To Follow Me
Talking Politics | March 24, 2013 at 11:09 AM

Mo Takes His Turn
March 21, 2013 at 12:59 PM

[Q&A] KMFDM's Sascha Konietzko on art, Columbine and having balls
On The Download | March 18, 2013 at 3:22 PM

See this film series: The Belmont World Film Series @ Studio Cinema in Belmont
Outside The Frame | March 18, 2013 at 11:00 AM

See this film: This is Spinal Tap [with post-film talk by expert from Acoustical Society of America] @ the Coolidge
March 17, 2013 at 12:00 PM

ARTICLES BY MIKAEL WOOD

THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS | FURTHER | July 07, 2010
Astralwerks (2010)

DEVO | SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY | July 01, 2010
Given the theory of de-evolution these Ohio brainiacs began expounding more than 30 years ago, it makes a sad kind of sense that Devo's first album since 1990's Smooth Noodle Maps offers such a charmless, base-level version of the band's synth-addled new wave.

TAIO CRUZ | ROKSTARR | June 24, 2010
When Taio Cruz sings, "I can't live without you," in "Take Me Back," pop-song conventions tell us he's referring to a lover.

THE FUTUREHEADS | THE CHAOS | June 16, 2010
"I wish that I could stop the noise," sings Barry Hyde not long into The Chaos . It sure doesn't seem that way.

BETTYE LAVETTE | INTERPRETATIONS: THE BRITISH ROCK SONGBOOK | June 01, 2010
Bettye LaVette’s previous two albums had titles that required a little digging to unpack.