I’ll give Days In December their due – at least they don’t look like they’ve been dressed in Top Man or that their haircuts were neatly coiffered at Toni and Guy. It’s just a pity their sound seems to be caught in a Funeral For A Friend, Lostprophets and From First To Last crossfire. Back in 2002 Taking Back Sunday pioneered a genre of music with the classic “emo” record, ‘Tell All Your Friends’. Similarly, around the same time ‘Fake Sound of Progress’ saw Lostprophets cross over from underground rock Gods to mainstream magazine cover stars. So the question begs – why on Earth, four years later, are kids still attempting to copy these bands?
While Days In December sound great – the production on here is impeccible – ‘Deleted Scenes’ sounds like a thousand bands that have released albums before them. The Lostprophets-esque vocals hit all the right notes and the screams/shouts are all present and correct, so I have no doubt this will sell by the bucketload because, sadly, this type of music has been ‘cool’ for quite some time and with bands like Bring Me The Horizon seemingly keeping screaming in fashion, bands like DID will always be there or thereabouts. But while DID don’t cash in on the image side, the music just doesn’t float my boat. It’s all competently done – there’s nothing wrong with it – but it all just sounds the same. There’s no attempt to sound different or try and push at the boundaries. It’s just safe and generic, like so many bands peddling this type of music right now.
It’s very rare that Deck Cheese put out a duff release – I think I’ve only ever given one negative review in the 6 years PT has been going. While Jesse James, Failsafe and Sonic Boom Six are three of the UK’s best, Days In December just re-hash a very tired and derivative genre of music. Does the world need a Days In December? I’m sure the music buying public will say yes, but I’m not so sure.