The Spill Canvas- No Really, I'm Fine

Hey, y'all! It's time for me to talk about another CD on my shelf! As always, I put my iTunes on shuffle, and the CD containing the first song that played is the one I'll be talking about!

Release Date: October 2, 2007

Genre: Emo, Acoustic, Pop Rock

Track Listing

1. Reckless Abandonment
2. All Over You
3. Battles
4. The Truth
5. Saved
6. Hush Hush
7. Low Fidelity
8. Connect the Dots
9. Bleed, Everyone's Doing It
10. Appreciation and the Bomb
11. One Thing Is for Sure
12. Lullaby

The Spill Canvas lineup on this CD:
Nick Thomas- Guitar, Vocals
Dan Ludeman- Guitar, backup vocals
Landon Heil- Bass
Joe Beck- drums, percussion

L-R: Landon, Nick, Dan, Joe

About The Spill Canvas: 
The Spill Canvas have been together since 2002, and in that time have released 7 CDs and 5 EPs. Their most successful CDs to date have been 2005's One Fell Swoop and 2007's No Really, I'm Fine. In the earlier stages of the band, their music was mostly categorized as emo, and much of it was acoustic or had a very raw sound to it. Progressing forward, their music became more pop rock/ pop punk.

My Opinion about The Spill Canvas:
While they don't make it into my top 10 bands ever, I'm a big fan of theirs. I was actually able to go to one of their concerts in October 2012, and got to meet the guys! Nick was a total sweetheart, and I actually got to talk to him for a while. It was really cool. I have all of their music, although there are definitely some CDs that I just don't listen to much at all.

Aww, I was just so excited!

Also, as a side note, the songs they performed at the concert that were from this CD were: Reckless Abandonment (their first song of the set!), Connect The Dots (introduced by Nick saying "this one's about sex."), Battles (which I forgot they did until looking through my pictures from the concert), and All Over You (Their finale song, since it's the most popular of their songs). I think they also might have done Hush Hush, but honestly, it was more than a year ago, and if it's not documented, I have no idea.

About the CD:  

This was their most commercially successful CD, getting into the Billboard 200 and reaching #2 on the Top Heatseekers chart. This CD has more of the pop rock sound that becomes more and more prevalent in their music throughout time, but there's definitely a mix of the emo in there.

IMHO: 
This is definitely my favorite of their CDs. Many of my all-time favorite songs by The Spill Canvas come from this CD. While I like some songs better than others (as always!), there honestly isn't a single dud on this CD. 

As always, I'm going to give each song a rating out of 10 and then give a brief explanation of why it got that rating. 

Reckless Abandonment- 9/10. It's a really powerful opener- which is why it was also a concert opener. It's fun to jam to, and it was definitely a strobe light song.
All Over You- 10/10. This one's definitely a fan favorite, and there's a reason. This song just screams SINGLE. The chorus has such a great beat to it, and I absolutely love it.
Battles- 8/10. It's not forgettable, per se, but I did have to listen to this one over and over to figure out a rating. Honestly, it's just not as spectacular as the rest of the CD. It's not a bad song, it's just not as good.
The Truth- 8.5/10. Once again, this song shines on the chorus. The way the guitar and drums combine is just great, and the guitar part between the chorus and verse is just great. And like most great songs by them, it's just so sassy.
Saved- 10/10. A slower song for them, but a very successful one. As much as I love their cheeky songs, it's nice to see their softer side.
Hush Hush- 9.5/10. And then we jump right back into the cheekiness. This time, I really like the interaction of the guitar and drums in the verses. Also, telling her to tie the mattress to her back makes me laugh every time.
Low Fidelity- 8/10. I really like the brass on this song. Once again, the chorus is where this song shines, but the verses aren't really anything special.
Connect the Dots- 8.5/10. Nick wasn't kidding- this is a very sensual song. It's also a bit of a different sound for the band, which is really cool. Not my favorite, but I really do like it.
Bleed, Everyone's Doing It- 10/10. One of my favorite songs by them. I just absolutely love the message and it's SO sassy that it hurts.
Appreciation and the Bomb- 10/10. The chorus contains one of my all-time favorite lyrics (If there's one thing I've learned, it's that we never feel the heat until we get burned/ But we try so hard not to die, sometimes we forget to appreciate life.), and it's just so beautiful. 
One Thing Is for Sure- 7.5/10. I like it. It's ok. It's nothing special, but I like it.
Lullaby- 8.5/10. It's very soft for them, and it really works for them. I think this lullaby would help me go to sleep. It's just so pretty and vulnerable.

Favorite Songs: Appreciation and the Bomb, All Over You, Saved, Hush Hush, and Bleed, Everyone's Doing It.

Least Favorite Songs: Honestly, One Thing Is for Sure is the only so-so one. Battles is maybe next.

Video! 

All Over You music video

Saved music video

Rating: 9/10. I knew this CD was going to get a 9 rating before I even rated the songs, but that choice is made even better by the fact that the songs' average was nearly exactly 9. CDs like this are the reason that I enjoy doing The CDs On My Shelf. This helps me to rediscover CDs that I genuinely love, but don't listen to as often as I would like to.

 Hope you liked my newest "The CDs on my Shelf" post! Have any questions? What did you think of The Spill Canvas? Let me know all of this in the comments. If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe/follow, because it lets me know y'all are liking them! Hope you enjoyed! Comment, comment, comment! I love feedback! Thanks for reading!

Hawthorne Heights- Fragile Future

Release Date: August 5, 2008

Genre: Post-hardcore, Emo

Track Listing

1.       The Business Of Paper Stars

2.       Rescue Me

3.       Until The Judgement Day

4.       Somewhere In Between

5.       Sugar In The Engine

6.       Desperation

7.       Four Became One

8.       321

9.       Disaster

10.   Let Go Of Everything You Know

11.   Corps of Corpses

12.   Come Back Home (Reprised)

On this CD, Hawthorne Heights is:
JT Woodruff- vocals, guitar
Micah Carli- guitar
Matt Ridenour- bass, backup vocals
Eron Bucciarelli- drums

About Hawthorne Heights: I don't really know a ton about them, but there are some important things I should talk about. They released their first CD, The Silence In Black and White, in 2004. Their first single off of this CD is also probably their most well-known song, Ohio Is For Lovers. Then, in 2006, they released If Only You Were Lonely. Their third album, Fragile Future, was released in 2008. These are the only 3 CDs I have by them, although they have released 2 CDs since- Skeletons in 2010, and Zero last month. There was a very abrupt lineup change between albums 2 &3, which I'll talk about in the "About The CD" bit, because it had an impact on the CD.

My opinion about Hawthorne Heights: I’m not a huge Hawthorne Heights fan, although I have 3 of their CDs. It’s kinda odd, but the bands that are more mainstream, as in regular people who listen to top 40 stations (bands like Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco) often aren’t ones I like A LOT. While I may enjoy their music, I’m usually not a devoted fan. I think I may have mentioned this in a previous post. It’s like this with Hawthorne Heights. While I like this CD and a lot of the songs on it, I only really like their singles on their other CDs.

About The CD: One thing that had a big effect on this CD was the sudden death of band member Casey Calvert. Casey did the guitar and unclean vocals for the band. While they were on tour in 2007, he was found dead in the tour bus. He died in his sleep of an accidental drug overdose. Two songs on the CD (Four Became One, Sugar In The Engine) were inspired by his death, and it brought the band closer together, and lead to this being, in my opinion, their best CD.

IMHO: This is my favorite CD by them. But it also holds a special place in my heart for another reason. I bought this CD back in 2009 when it was fairly new. When I opened the case, I realized that there was a second CD inside. This CD had a random selection of music videos by other artists on Victory Records (the label HH was on). I was really interested in listening to some new music, so I popped it into my DVD player. I really liked a lot of the songs, and still have a lot of them on my iPod now. These included “I Didn’t Mean To Interrupt…” by Jamies Elsewhere, a “Since U Been Gone” cover by A Day To Remember, “Still Dreaming” by Silverstein, and some songs by a band named 1997, a band that I never researched much further… but the songs on the CD are great! Anyway, among these songs, I found the music video for a song called “Warm Me Up” by The Audition. I had never heard of The Audition, but I really liked this song. The Audition is now one of my top 5 favorite bands ever, and I never would have found them without this CD.

Favorite Songs: Somewhere In Between is definitely my favorite song on the CD.

Other Gems: Sugar In The Engine, Desperation, Four Became One, 321

Video!

Music Video for Somewhere In Between

Four Became One

Rating: 7.5/10. There are a lot of songs on the CD that I really like, and the rest I just never really listen to.

Hope you liked my newest "The CDs on my Shelf" post! What did you think? Want to know more information about the CD? Less? or just different info? Or is what I put good? What did you think of Hawthorne Heights? Did you already hate them? I know a lot of people do. Let me know all of this in the comments. If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe, because it lets me know y'all are liking them! Still taking comments on the time they're posted, because if you haven't noticed, I schedule them to post at the same time, as I'm either asleep or at work at noon! Hope you enjoyed! Check back at noon tomorrow, because might possibly be a new post. Not totally sure. Comment, comment, comment! I love feedback! Thanks for reading!