Believe me, I love Matt Pryor. The Get Up Kids are arguably my favourite band of all time and so I’ve always been keen to hear The New Amsterdams, if only to hear Matt’s vocals seeing as though TGUK have sadly called it a day. Throughout TNA’s career, they’ve written some gems and a few disasters and ‘Story Like A Scar’ continues that tradition. It’s an inconsistent record that flickers between genius and a few moments where you’re left a little bored.
As some of the latter day Get Up Kids material showed, Pryor’s influences were heading down the country route. And that’s exactly what ‘Story Like A Scar’ is – a country-influenced record. It’s tender, quiet and not always as accessible as TGUK was. While Pryor’s vocals are as good as ever, there’s something missing here that lacks the charm his former band had. Shit, even some of the older TNA material has more charm. ‘Turn Out The Light’ is a great song mind, as is ‘Calendar Days’, but for all the highlights there are several very boring lowlights and none more so than the sleep-inducing ‘Your Ghost’, which is so boring you could easily use it to cure insomnia.
For me, ‘Worse For The Wear’ was a great little record. This isn’t quite so good. And while it’s not bad, I’ll always compare any of Pryor’s new bands/side projects to his crowning glory. And simply this doesn’t come anywhere near up to scratch.
www.thenewamsterdams.net
Vagrant
paul