ALBUM REVIEW: CRUEL INTENTIONS - An Evening With

An Evening With (Band)

Cruel Intentions (Album)

  

     In the overall scene of music, the power-pop genre has been quite strong and firm in terms of popularity. It’s close to improbable to ignore the catchy hooks, the upbeat guitar riffs, and quirky stage presence. For the local band, An Evening With (Long Island, NY), their album Cruel Intentions proves my point to the previously stated elements of power-pop. There are three songs that are definitely worth analyzing instrumentally, lyrically, and emotionally.
     Speaking of Long Island, one of the songs off of Cruel Intentions is called “Long Island (This is Home)”. This is my favorite song off Cruel Intentions. There are several elements that truly stand out to me. One of them is being how compelling the harmonies are in the chorus. Bands should really get props in scenarios where the backup vocalists have the ability to sing in higher octaves and keep it consistent. Another element that I found appealing to the song is how fast it is compared to some of the other songs which are feasible to tell from because the drum beats are noticeably faster. Out of personal preference, I always favor songs that have a “feel like home” type of vibe because it most likely has a story to it.
     Another song on this album stands out is “Die For You”. The introduction to that song has this very dark atmosphere to it. The way the music comes in after woods gives you the automatic mood of honesty to it. It definitely has elements of emo music in it just by the lyrics alone. It’s quite easy to tell that they wrote “Die For You” with passion.
     The electronica/autotune element for music has gotten popular and persistent in the pop/rock field. Even though it wasn’t much, “Luck and Cruel Intentions” was one of the songs that had the electronica vibe. Even though I’m not the biggest fan of it, I thought it was pulled off well in this case. The first thing that came to mind was “don’t let this be one of those party rock songs to follow the trend”. However; I was pleasantly surprised with how well the song can emote itself through the chorus.
     For fans of Boys Like Girls, Hit The Lights, Jimmy Eat World, and We The Kings, this is something to definitely check out.


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