Cassadee Pope Releases Enjoyable Debut

Cassadee Pope rose to fame in the Warped Tour circuit with her pop-punk band Hey Monday. Their music was an energetic dose of pop-punk that featured a very pop edge but also rocked hard. Hey Monday took a hiatus and Pope released a mediocre EP that was basically Hey Monday lite. Then she participated and eventually won The Voice. With Blake Shelton as her coach Pope adopted a country sound and that later manifested in the first single "Wasting All These Tears." The single was a great first country outing for Pope and her debut album Frame by Frame followed this month.
The album starts on a high note with the album's five best songs. "Good Times," "Champagne," "Wasting All These Tears," "I Wish I Could Break Your Heart" and "Everybody Sings" are all catchy and memorable. "Good Times" is a fast paced song about enjoying the good times with a bit of  a rock edge and is the best song on the album. "Everybody Sings" shows a bit of Pope's pop side with a Gwen Stefani "Hollaback Girl" inspired breakdown during the bridge. "I Wish I Could Break Your Heart" is a rock inspired song as well as "Champagne."
Other good songs on the album are "This Car" and ode to falling in love in a car and "One Song Away" a breakup ballad about being one sad song away from a breakdown. "Easier to Lie" is an anthem for cheaters all over and despite being a sleazy track, is an emotional look into the mind of a cheater.
Some of the songs that aren't as good include "You Hear a Song" which is a misguided attempt at a love song and just comes off cheesy. "11" is a Taylor Swift inspired song that deals with a child dealing with the divorce of her parents.
However the album closes on a high note again with "Proved You Wrong." This song is a fast-paced country rocker that is similar to Pope's solo material.
While this country debut is a good album, it isn't truly pure country. The music is more pop and rock with country influences mixed in. Pope should return to Hey Monday as soon as possible. Her music with her former band was far more memorable than these songs. But judging by her "I'm going back to my roots" spiel that isn't likely to happen anytime soon, if not ever. 

 

Cassadee Pope Releases First Country Singles

Rocker gone The Voice winner, Cassadee Pope released her debut single "Wasting All These Tears" last week. The single marks her fist foray into country music.
Previously known as the vocalist for Hey Monday, Pope has abandoned all of her pop-punk swag for a country sound reminiscent of a Carrie Underwood song.
Upon first listen the song is very boring but after a few more spins it grows on you. A bitter breakup song that lyrically recalls both Underwood and Taylor Swift, the song is pure country.
The song is a mixture of weakness and strength that is felt upon leaving a relationship.
"Finally I'm through wasting all these tears on you," Pope sings.
While the song is good, it's nothing compared to her earlier work with Hey Monday. Hopefully on her debut solo album, she will branch off from just country.

All Time Low don't waste any time on new album

All Time Low released their fifth album,Don't Panic last month, a little over a year after their Dirty Work album. While Dirty Work wasn't a bad album it wasn't as good as their other albums. The album had so many guest writers and co producers that it was hard to find the band in all of the fray. Despite there being many good songs like "Under a Paper Moon," "Do You Want Me (Dead)" and "Guts" which featured The Sounds singer Maja Ivarsson, it wasn't as wholly memorable as their previous records.
Don't Panic gets the band back to their roots. They get back to their old school pop-punk sound. The album doesn't have one bad song. From bitter break-ups ("The Irony of Choking on a Lifesaver") to long distance love ("If These Sheets Were the States") to lonely hook-ups ("Backseat Serenade") the album's rocking tracks cover many topics that sexy scene kids in their early twenties would face in their daily lives.
The album doesn't have a bad song on it and that's a rare thing, especially in pop-punk where all songs tend to sound the same. Songs like the hard rocking "So Long, Soldier" are sure to get pits to open at Warped Tour for years to come. "Somewhere in Neverland" deals with getting older. Life tends to get boring after high school and frontman Alex Gaskarth talks to his lover about running away into Neverland. "Wendy run away with me/I know I sound crazy/Don’t you see what you do to me?/I wanna be your lost boy/Your last chance, a better reality," Gaskarth sings in the chorus.
One thing that makes this album different is that the band have several guest vocalists. Bayside frontman Anthony Raneri sings on "Outlines" while Jason Vena from Acceptance and Cassadee Pope from Hey Monday guest on "So Long, Soldier." Pope also guests on the albums best track "Backseat Serenade." The song is about Gaskarth trying to seduce a lover. "Backseat serenade/Little hand grenade/Oh god, I'm sick of sleeping alone/You're salty like a summer day/Kiss the pain away To your radio," Gaskarth and Pope harmonize during the chorus.
All in all this album is sure to ease the minds of those All Time Low fans that were put off by Dirty Work.

Yellowcard finally change things up

Last month pop-punk band Yellowcard released their eighth studio album, Southern Air. The album was released just one year after it's predecessor When You're Through Thinking, Say Yes. That album was great but it didn't stand up next to their other albums Ocean Avenue and Lights and Sounds. The album didn't do anything different than those records and while it was well-done it wasn't a classic.
This album is just like Ocean Avenue, emotional and well written. The lyrics are written directly from frontman Ryan Key's heart and that's what makes a great album. This record has some different characteristics. One thing is the music.While it's not much of a change from their violin-filled pop-punk, it just has a different energy. Songs like "Awakening" and "Here I Am Live" which features a duet with We Are The In Crowd singer Taylor Jardine and was cowritten by Fall Out Boy singer Patrick Stump, have an undeniable energy to them.
The highlight of the album is "Telescope" which features vocals from Jardine, Cassadee Pope from Hey Monday and Alex Gasgarth from All Time Low. The song is dedicated to Key's late aunt and it's a touching tribute. "My only hope, you're my telescope," the four singers sing beautifully at the end. The song's music sounds like "Work" by Jimmy Eat World and it's one of their best songs of their career.
Other songs like "A Vicious Kind" and the first single "Always Summer" simply rock. Every song on the album makes this one of the best Yellowcard albums.
The one low point lies in "Ten" a boring acoustic number that slows down the pace of the album. Even that song is forgivable because the album is so good. Surely Southern Air will be getting serious play by fans all over the world.

Hey Monday, yet not as good

Hey Monday went on hiatus at the end of last year and lead vocalist Cassadee Pope announced that she'd be going solo. Pope released her debut self-titled solo EP at the end of last month. The album featured four songs that sounded a lot like Hey Monday's last EP, 2010's Beneath It All.
The first song on the EP and single is called "Original Love." This is the best song on the record. It sounds like Hey Monday, so much that it doesn't sound like Pope had any originality to put into her own material.
The second song, "Secondhand Love" is decent, but forgettable. It's slower and it gets sort of boring. It's still an okay song though.
The third song "I Guess We're Cool" is a tad bit faster in the beginning before it slows down a bit. A good song, but still not as memorable as half the songs on Hey Monday's full-length.
The final song is called "Told You So." Anybody who has listened to pop-rock like The Veronicas, Kelly Clarkson or Ashlee Simpson has heard a song like this, and they've heard it done better. This song is once again okay but it's no "Candles" (Hey Monday's biggest single and slow jam).
This EP is good but Pope has done so much better with her band that it's hard to take seriously. Hopefully Hey Monday's hiatus doesn't last too long because if it does, the world will need to hear more half-assed EP's like this. Below is a video of "Original Love."

Sorry I haven't posted in so long

Final exam week is not a fun time. But in that time No Doubt and  Cassadee Pope from Hey Monday announced their new releases. No Doubt's six studio record will be in Stores September 25th and Cassadee Pope's first solo EP which is self titled will be out on May 22nd. Below is a video of No Doubt from the studio recording an amazing sounding dancehall inspired track "Push & Shove."