I'll admit it; I have a few musical guilty pleasures. I have a few albums that I'm embarrassed to own but I still love nonetheless. Makeout Party seems like they could be one of those bands. The name alone is a little off-putting, whether it reminds you of the awkward middle school gathering or the quick-lived internet group sensation. The ironic charm of the name made me a little suspicious, and the rather bland presentation of the artwork didn't give me much hope either.
Lengths and Limits isn't what I would have initially expected, but the music is rather fitting for the band name. They claim to play some kind of "indie rock," which I hear to fall somewhere between Armor for Sleep and Taking Back Sunday, but a bit softer. All of the melodies feel very old, and nothing really grabbed me at the beginning of the album. And as I got through towards the end, I felt like I had been listening to the same progressions over and over.
The vocal patterns bothered me a lot, often straining into a whine trying to get that "heartfelt" tone, but ending up sounding boring. However, if that's your thing, you will probably enjoy the lyrics as well. None of the lines really have any meaning, just rhyming phrases of arbitrary relationship problems. This album certainly has its share of crooning ballad moments, which just make everything sound a little cornier.
I wanted to find the best track on Lengths and Limits, or at least place all the points of the album, like the obligatory acoustic track. I thought I had found it, but it turned out to be the epic-sounding attempt of the title track. This song has the most variation of the tracks on this album, but that's still only in terms of Makeout Party's very shallow range. After a while you realize that they seem to be using the same melodic progressions in every song, and the vocals follow closely behind them.
I don't mean to point out only faults in this record. But I'm disappointed when the band I read about on paper falls so much shorter in their music. I'm sure that those teenagers still into this type of music will eat it up, along with the cute name. But if you like this style, there are bands much better than this to get your fix. Makeout Party is basically the band you listen to if you don't know any better.
