When you review as many generic melodic hardcore bands as I do, you do whatever you can to try to find things that make one band stand out from another. Believe me, it wasn't easy to as I listened to Voyages. Tall Ships sounds like just another hardcore band going through the motions of being a new school hardcore. They sound like Have Heart boxing it out with Sinking Ships in out of battle of "Hey I've Heard This Part Before." Seriously, it's bands like Tall Ships that make me want to finally discover new music while I'm going through my mid-life crisis. It's not that Tall Ships is bad, they just are...there. It usually doesn't bug me that I've heard it all before, it's just this band does nothing to make me want to listen through the eleven tracks.
Okay, they actually have two things that will forever be etched into my mind and sadly neither one of them are in Tall Ships' favor. One: Tall Ships has a guitar player that wants to be in Strung Out; he even has the same guitar tone. It's eerie. It's too bad I never liked Strung Out or I would appreciate his cloned finger tapping technique of a Fat Wreck band I never gave a rat's ass about in the first place. Two: Tall Ships unfortunately decided to pen an awful song called "HCP" which uses every hardcore cliche ever used while reminding us hardcore is all about, "from the east coast to the west coast, from Bad Brains to the Germs. Circle Pits, Stage dives, singing ever word." Really? Wow. I turn a devil's ass shade of red every time I think there's band that in 2009 that actually thought those lyrics were something meaningful. We get it, unity. Yeah. Gold star for you.
Voyages is an unremarkable album that is actually marred by two inherent missteps that after repeated listens just begin to grate on my ears. That's just too bad, I was all ready to forget I even heard Tall Ships in the first place, or at least give the old "it's good for what it is" review. However, I'm cranky tonight and it's the little things that won't garner Voyages a good or even a tolerable review from me. I guess if you really like today's stagnant hardcore, or moreover, if you like bands that sound like everything else, by all means search this out. I'm sure the band is chock full of good dudes that need to be backed.
