Album Reviews

Plankeye is intent upon capturing the moment, instead refining a thing until it's slippery and smooth. Vocalist Scott Siletta often pushes his voice past the breaking point in these honest songs about making sense of bad situations. At its best, Plankeye often sounds like a later day Plimsouls. The One And Only is a little rough around the edges, but it's hard to miss the bright light of rock & roll energy shining through.      

~ Dan MacIntosh

Yawn. I could stop there, but I’ll do my best to elaborate. 

There are certain musical endeavors that make you scratch your head, wondering how (or why) a recording contract was ever issued. This particular offering is as bland and vanilla as, unfortunately, anything out there. Where is the music that shakes things up? I want music I remember, where there’s a style (hopefully unique), but each tune, or at least most, grab you.

What Plankeye made me think of was “Elvis Costello meets the Romantics”, without the spark or individuality of either. Not bad production value…that’s the upside. After that, not one instrument or musician stands out, let alone a song. Seriously, if you insert the CD and select random play, you may think you’re getting the same song over and over.

Music is supposed to stand out. Nearly any group of 4 people (more or less) can learn instruments, put some songs together, and put it out there. No problem, have fun…just don’t try and sell it to me under the guise of something that will entertain me. I’ve got a radio…lots of channels…give me something that you can’t get just anywhere. Sadly, this is a compilation of sounds that you can get anywhere…and I don’t want it. 

~Bob Lewerke

This is an album I hated at first, but I thouroughly enjoy it now. Every Plankeye album sounds different, and this one has a radio pop-rock feel, somewhat like Thrid Eye Blind. Of course, with this being the great Plankeye, these songs contain a lot more depth than most radio garbage. "Fall Down" is absolutely beautiful, and paints a perfect picture of the struggle against oneself. Some of the more punk sounding cuts are good too. Most of these songs took a lot of getting used to though, and I still cant stand a couple of them. Over all, a good pop rock album with lots of depth for the genre.