“Wake Up” is the lead single from the recently released Story Of the Year album, The Black Swan, and it’s a perfectly aimed pitch for broad-scope teen-rock-channel success.
Which is, of course, a double-edged sword. Story Of The Year evidently know the ingredients of radio-friendly alt-rock as well as anyone else, and “Wake Up” has them all. You want an effects-drenched intro and subtle studio stunts to add some stickiness? OK. You want bright catchy riffs on richly-produced guitars? No problems. You many upper-middle register vocals, harmonised to perfection and played off against a shouty call-response chorus? Hey, we deliver! Socially conscious lyrics with a hint of youthful defiance? Coming right up!
The end result? Pop-rock bingo!
Having just described it as generic, I should make the point that “Wake Up” is an excellent example of the form. It may not have a great deal of depth to it, but it blasts out of your speakers in a way that reminds you what it was like to be sixteen, full of fire and ready to take the world on … well, right after you’ve had lunch and pwnz0red your mates on the X-Box, anyway. It’s a decent pop song, and Story Of the Year are a much more earnest pop-rock band than a lot of others I could name.
The disappointment for me is that, having heard the album in full, I know Story Of The Year are not only capable of better, but that they’ve delivered better, too. The Black Swan contains a handful of really solid tracks that match their pop appeal with a genuine sense of authenticity. Regrettably, “Wake Up” is not one of them.
But hey, that’s marketing - and they don’t release singles for old fogeys like me anyway. If Story Of The Year are lucky, “Wake Up” should raise a few eyelids among the drainpipe kids … but the album tracks have a better chance of stirring the older listener into action.
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Tags: alternative, emo, metal, pop, rock, Story Of The Year, Wake Up
