Artist: Tokyo Rose
Album: New American Saint
Label: Sidecho Records
Tracks: 11
Length: 43:11
Review By: Christopher Thomas!

When you write record reviews for Decapolis, Julia sends out a list of records to choose from, and those reviewers who respond first get the records they request. When you receive the CDs in the mail, you have about two weeks to write and post the review. This brings me to the review that you are reading right now.

This review is incredibly late. If lateness were a body of water, this review would be the Atlantic Ocean. If lateness could be measured on a dog-based scale with the smallest readable measurement being a teacup poodle and the largest measurement being a St. Bernard, this review would be the St. Bernard PLUS his little jug of emergency alcohol riding on top of a Great Dane.

For the past several weeks I have been entirely unable to formulate a cohesive, unified thought about Tokyo Rose’s new record. Nothing comes to mind, even after repeated listens. And if there’s one thing that is more dangerous to a band than eliciting unfavorable listener reaction, it is eliciting no listener reaction at all.

There is nothing bad about this record. The band plays well, the songs are fairly catchy, and the production is great. It’s catchy, melodic rock music, plain and simple. In fact, it is precisely what you would expect from an album with that description. And maybe that is where the problem is. It isn’t boring, and it isn’t bad, but it also isn’t memorable. You can sing along, but when the CD is over, you’ll find yourself forgetting both the words and the melodies.

New American Saint is like a brand new barn alongside an Indiana farmland road: it’s well built and it serves its purpose, but it’s nondescript. By the time I’ve passed it, I won’t even remember it was there.