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Unwritten Law - Here's to the Mourning Audio CD

A fair review of the Unwritten Law "Here's to the Mourning" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Unwritten Law reviews here, or go back to the Unwritten Law tabs.

Unwritten Law Band: Unwritten Law
Title: Here's to the Mourning
Rating:
Release Date: 2005-02-01
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Intro 2: Get Up 3: Celebration Song 4: Because of You 5: No Control 6: Save Me 7: The Way 8: Slow Dance 9: She Says 10: Rejection's Cold 11: F.I.G.H.T. 12: Walrus

What happened to UL?
I listened to Here's to the Mourning several times and could never get into it. Well, I really wanted to like thier latest albulm. Other than Save Me and The Celebration Song, the rest of the albulm fell flat. I am all for change and everything, but compaired to all of thier other cd's this one was scary. I don't know what type of genre they are trying to become, but the hard rock vibe does not work well with Scott Russo's voice. I don't know what I expected, but this was not it. As I listen to all genres of music, I feel dissapointed. What happened UL? .


ouch
save your money UL, you won't have any in a couple years. mediocore, radio friendly pop rock songs. this is one of the worst, most boring cds i have ever heard for punk, rock, or just pop. .


Good Follow-Up To Elva
Similar to Elva musically, with the band showing their ability to produce yet another great album with back-to-back great songs one after the next. Bought this a long time ago and I still love it. Best Songs = She Says, Save Me, Walrus.


not punk-pop, radio-friendly hard rock, metal, grunge pop
On that level, I was totally disappointed. I bought this album after hearing Armageddon Singalong on the Short Music for Short People compilation album, as I was hoping to hear some more witty, cool pop-punk. There is nothing witty or punkish about this album in my opinion. At a couple of points it reminded me of Boxcar Racer in its sound, which was the only tenuous connection I could find to punk-pop. After hearing Here's to the Mourning, I was very surprised to read on the official Unwritten Law website that 'Unwritten Law inhabits the upper echelon of successful punk bands, bands whose substance and longevity overshadow the countless hordes of imitation, fly-by-night pop-punk operations riding a one-way train to anonymity. ' It is staggering to think that a band can put out an album like Here's to the Mourning, and think they are a punk band. Even if you ascribe to the view that punk is an attitude, not a style of music, I would be amazed if someone could coherently argue that there is any punk attitude on this album. In my opinion, Simple Plan are way more punk in music and attitude than the music or lyrics on Here's to the Mourning, and I thought Simple Plan was as far as you can go in terms of playing pop rock and still call yourself punk. Here's to the Mourning is not punk in any shape or form, except in the imagination of the band. Here's to the Mourning is, however, an excellent album of polished, radio-friendly hard rock album with metal, grunge and pop elements.

I don't know why Unwritten Law doesn't just call themselves a hard rock band. I guess it's not as marketable at the moment, and who ever does the marketing strategy for their website is maybe trying to tap into the Simple Plan, Yellowcard, Good Charlotte demographic. If putting a picture in the in-lay booklet of the band with black fingernail polish, black eyeliner, styling mouse and wearing black makes you punk rock, then I apologize, this is punk rock. But, as they say in North Carolina, you can put a cat in the oven, but it don't make it a biscuit.

I won't be keeping this CD, as I don't love it. But, there is nothing much you can fault about this album. The songs are brilliant rock songs, hence the 5 stars. It's a pleasure to listen to this album by a musically very talented band. Someone wrote that this album doesn't have much polish, but I would say it is very polished. The production is excellent. Great melodies. There are some nice tender songs. I occasionally found some of the metal riffs a bit aggressive, macho, and mind-numbingly simplistic. They would have appealed to me more when I was adolescent. This album didn't make it into my permanent collection, but in terms of rock culture I wouldn't be surprised to find it in a list of the 50 most important rock albums of 2005. I'm just not much of a fan of radio-friendly hard rock/metal/grunge. But, if you are, you'll probably dig this.


Hmmm...
On Elva, we saw some good old fashioned punk-rock laced with some slightly harder content. Unwritten Law has gone slightly downhill. Also, it had some pretty good lyrics. I picked up 'Here's to the Mourning' expecting it to be more of the same, if not slightly harder. What I got was dumbed down, "why can't I be on the radio?" modern rock. For example, the lyrics are just inane, making no sense, merely trying to rhyme wherever it seems like it needs to. You'll hear nothing really new here, just some tired riffs and progressions that you've doubtless heard before in other places.
On the plus side, this IS Unwritten Law, and some of the songs are undeniably catchy and good to bounce your head to. I just think that this band is capable of much better music. This one's a miss, but I sure hope that their next album shows recovery. .


You can see a complete list of all Unwritten Law discography, or go back to the Unwritten Law tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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