Somewhere Somehow - We The Kings (Album Review)
Somewhere Somehow is the fourth full length album from Florida based pop-punk quintet We The Kings. The album was released December 16, 2013. They strayed from their familiar record label S-Curve and released on Ozone Entertainment after having their album complexly funded via indegogo. The album produced four singles which were released every few weeks up to the release of the album. The first single “Just Keep Breathing” was released April 5, 2013 and tells of frontman Travis Clark’s struggle with being bullied as a kid, something most of us can relate to. It climbed the charts to number 38 on the mid-week chart for April 10. The second single “Find you There” was released May 3, 2013; it has a sound very similar to that of Imagine Dragons, with a steady, upbeat tempo and violins and electronic dance beats in the backing track. “Any Other Way” was the third single released June 14; it’s an inspirational track that sounds like it belongs in a movie, in a fight training scene or something. It’s one of my favorite songs on the entire album. The fourth and final single “Art of War, which we did a review on, was released on December 9. As a whole, “Somewhere Somehow” is a change from past albums, it still has the upbeat, happy tempo (in most tracks) that we are used to hearing from We The Kings, however there is something different about it. Perhaps because most were expecting sounds similar to their past albums, many are unsure what to make of their newest work at the moment. However, that doesn’t mean that it is bad by any means. Many of the tracks are melodic and catchy in a different way than they were in the past; “Queen of Hearts” the first track on the album and one of, if not the poppiest,and catchiest; and “I Like It” are the two most notable, the latter of which has a Fall Out Boy “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark” vibe, and the lyrics do not disappoint and will plant thoughts in any sexually frustrated brain about whoever with, “You’ve got a tendency in taking all your clothes off. Oh man hot damn you’ve got a body like ohh ohh ohh oh.” To counter them there are some slower and a little more meaningful, or deep tracks such as “Say it Now” and “Sad Song (ft. Elena Coats)”, which for the record really is a sad song, I suggest not listening to it when you’re emotionally compromised because you will end up sobbing into your beer. While many are poo-pooing this album, it’s really not all bad. It may not be the direction that we expected the band to go in, but as stated almost exhaustingly in past reviews, band’s styles change all the time. It depends on the reception they get when they make that change if they stick with it or not.
Rating: 4/5 - solid. While, true it wasn’t what I was expecting, it wasn’t bad in the least like I’ve seen some critics say. We The Kings decided to go a different route with the album by self funding and releasing on a different label, you can’t expect everything to stay the same. Personally I’m not the biggest fan of pop-sounding music in the world, but We The Kings will always hold a special, nostalgic place in my heart (oh high school). If you haven’t checked it out yet, you can listen to the stream here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLyvKUlepY7_xzKdW9pqrgN7-4bH9yC7t6&v=MpHH_zvdqf8
purchase it on iTunes: http://smarturl.it/something-somewhere
