The Status Channels Sunny Day and Jimmy

[rating:7/10]

The Status has teamed up with indie powerhouse Doghouse Records to release their first full length album, entitled So This is Progress. Now out for a month, the album is starting to make waves and the band is wrapping up the final leg of a tour supporting Bayside, The Matches, and Valencia. With moments evoking Something to Write Home About… era Get Up Kids, vocal harmonies as solid as Midtown’s, and hooks reminiscent of The Starting Line, The Status is what I loved about emo when I was in high school in the late 90s.

Amidst the generic pop punk and emo of the past few years, this album easily stand out as one of the better ones released in the genre. At brief moments, the CD can sound a bit generic or a bit stale, but the overall product harkens back to a time when the emo scene was just starting to break into the mainstream with the success of Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity. It’s easy to hear that The Status is influenced by this era, as this reviewer’s relatively untrained ear can hear the same elements that evoked love affairs with the music of Piebald and The Promise Ring, as well as previously mentioned bands The Get Up Kids, Jimmy Eat World, and Midtown.

It’s not as if The Status is doing anything that is even remotely new, but they find a way to bring out the best of a genre inundated with overproduction, generic vocal tracks, unimaginative guitar work, and mediocre rhythm sections. Proper usage of slow build ups and brief, yet powerful breakdowns combined with solid musicianship and emotive vocals mark So This is Progress as an album that could stand on its own two legs among anything done by the aforementioned emo demigods. I will gladly be placing So This is Progress on the “emo that doesn’t suck” shelf right between Further Seems Forever’s The Moon is Down and Piebald’s If It Weren’t for Venetian Blinds… It Would Be Curtains for Us All. We should all be thankful that there is a modern emo band that comes across more like Sunny Day Real Estate with stronger pop sensibilities than another A New Found Glory clone.

Man, why do I suddenly feel the need to listen to “Blister” by Jimmy Eat World?

Standout tracks: “Back of Your Feet”, “Why are You So Sad”, “If There’s Love”, and “Sinking”

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~ by thepaintedman on November 10, 2008.