Artist: The Modern Day Saint/ Sonny
Album: Tennessee Isn't Too Far Away
Label: Fork In Hand Records
Tracks: 6
Length: 23:22
Review by: Phil Nichols

Tennessee Isn't Too Far Away is a split EP featuring two bands that sound exactly the same. The first band, the Modern Day Saint, is a quintet of New England kids who have just recently finished their first major tour and are currently in the studio working on their eleven-song debut full-length. The second artist on the album, Sonny, was the band that the Modern Day Saint's guitarist formed in 2002. After recording a few songs and playing select Warped Tour dates, Sonny split up, thus ending their short-lived music career.

Again, both The Modern Day Saint and Sonny sound incredibly similar, and not just similar to each other, but similar to hundreds of other up and coming emo bands out there. Both bands' songs follow the same formula: heavy intro, muted/quiet verse, the chorus, and then everything leads up to screaming over the melody. The song structures, melodic riffs, and dueling vocals are all very reminiscent of Taking Back Sunday. The songwriting for both bands is also pretty mediocre. Most songs have cliché lyrics like "so now X out all your pictures and paste together these words: I just can't go on."

Overall, Tennessee Isn't Too Far Away is a bland release, because everything on the album has been done before, and done better. Nothing stands out as being creative, innovative, or original. Judging solely on this EP it seems as though these artists are trying to jump on the bandwagon and cash in on some of music's recent trends. If you are a fan of Taking Back Sunday or similar emo bands, you might get some enjoyment out of this EP, just don't expect anything inventive or groundbreaking.