Burnside Project – The Finest Example is You / 2006 Bar None / 11 Tracks / http://www.burnsidemusic.com / http://www.bar-none.com / Reviewed 03 June 2006

I don’t know what to categorize this style of music. “Signs of Perfection” shows Burnside Project as an act that mixes emo music with dance music. This is not necessarily like The Sounds or Head Automatica, but is what Blink 182 tried to do with “Always”. It is honestly as if the band blended all the New Romantic albums that they had in their garages with an emo style that is much more close to Deep Elm than The All-American Rejects. The band does not break their style for “And So It Goes”. The style of music thus that is common during “The Finest Example is You” is something that will get individuals on the dance floor and crying into their hankies.

The organic sound of the vocals and the inorganic sound of the synthesizer would seem to fight each other, but the results are pleasantly surprising. In fact, the band works together to create one solid sound throughout the entirety of the track. “Get Better Soon” is the pinnacle for Burnside Project, as the coy vocals that start out the track are the focus. There is instrumentation that nears the same output of previous tracks, but even this feels restrained. This means that the vocals hit listeners even harder, and make the track into a blend of Death Cab For Cutie and Fischerspooner. This neat bundle of synthesizers, drum machines, and vocals hits hard with each subsequent track on “The Finest Example is You”. While the vocals may be a little too anemic to make individuals jump on the dance floor immediately, Burnside Project make up for this by creating tracks that will bounce around listeners’ heads well after the disc ends.

The disc is unabashed pop music, and it is through this that the band parallels The Gossip; where the bands diverge soon after, there is the commonality present with both acts that each song on the disc is a potential hit. The disc is 45 minutes of unadulterated pop, but pop that is predicated by an understanding that there are individuals listening in that focus purely on the arrangements and the experimentations that the band crafts during the track. I really like what Burnside Project does with this album; the blend of two very different styles works perfectly and shows that the band is on some solid footing. Here’s to hearing more from them in the near future.

Top Tracks: Get Better Soon, Just Drop Off

Rating: 6.5/10

[JMcQ]