I find listening to CDs like this self-titled emo effort is always a bit like riding a moped: it's a lot of fun but only if your friends don't see you. When the opening track "One Knife" kicks in, with its melodically strummed Sparta-like rage, my head was indeed bobbing. But, halfway through "Possibility/Disaster," though I could no longer tell the tracks apart by that point, I was looking around to see if anyone was watching. Yeah, the same pop-punk hooks and lyricism that have had you reeling from the genre since Fall Out Boy was in high school is here in full effect. So no one with hatred for anything like those F.O.B. knobs should attempt to hear this record. This is not to say, however, that there is no talent here. In fact, if the extended acoustic opening to "The Strong" and the ambient instrumental "The Universe" (which is the double dos debut's best track despite being only a minute long) were released as a single, they'd definitely get a good review out of me. Every now and then, a lyric will float by that hints that these guys probably read the paper and, which is more, understand it somewhat. They're still young, though, and obviously have some growing up to do. I know I look back on myself every couple of years or so and want to kick my own ass, so it's probably best left as a wait-and-see for Seattle's Joe and Jew.
1. One Knife
2. Time Incriminates Us All
3. Possibility/Disaster
4. The Journey's The Destination
5. The Universe
6. Your History's Wrong
7. Home Never Escapes Through Distance
8. Ramses II
9. Revenge Is My Best Dish
10. Meaning Is Relative
11. The Strong
More about: The Orphan Project
