Search - Cruiserweight :: Sweet Weaponry

Apopalypse Now

Daniel Mcguffey | Austin, TX | 05/25/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Cruiserweight, a serious contender in the Austin, TX scene for years now, is about to receive their much-deserved time beneath bright lights. "Sweet Weaponry" showcases a young band and their finely-tuned sound that presents an amalgam of powerpop, rock and dark, meaningful songwriting. While the foursome will no doubt acquire a pop branding for their infectious, catchy sound, a closer examination reveals that there is so much more beneath the sugary surface.



Sonically, one of the most defining aspects of Cruiserweight arrives via the huge, thick-ass, classic rock inspired guitar power. Atop this wall of sound sits another instantly noticeable force; Stella Maxwell, the female-fronted foursome's melody machine. Stella's vocal carriage travels from soft-spoken lullabies to majestic crooning and foreceful howling, each when it is most appropriate to do so. Tracks like "Goodbye Daily Sadness" and "Vermont" will instantly have you showing your best Dance Dance Revolution moves to your friends, while "Phantom Rider" or "Operation Eyes Closed" will incite entire crowds to chant in chorus with one another the potent, heartfelt measures with raised fists.



All in all, Cruiserweight and Doghouse Records do not disappoint for even a second. "Sweet Weaponry" tells a tale that will excite at first listen, and entrance upon second."

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pancake_repairman | gfjdhgfjhgj | 12/28/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Vermont is an amazing song, and I don't use that word lightly. It is sheer melodic power-pop bliss. I'd sell my soul to be able to write a song that good. The entire careers of Velocity Girl, The Fastbacks, and Discount are rendered redundant in the face of the saccharine pop hurricane that is Vermont. It's the best girly power-pop song ever written. Or at least the best since That Dog's Never Say Never, The Blake Babies' Out There, and Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

Unfortunately the album takes a steep downhill slide after that. It would be unreasonable to expect the majority of the album to live up to that opening track, but it is remarkable how far short most of the other songs fall. The majority of the riffs, melodies and chord progressions on the album are rudimentary conventional basic stuff, less energetic than Vermont and also less complex. The production and vocals are consistently good enough to make it always at least listenable though, with the exception of the closing ballad Have You Ever Had One Of These Days which is just bad and forced in every conceivable way.

I guess I should add how much Cruiserweight sounds like Element 101, most specifically their album Stereo Girl. If you've heard that album and listened to this album without knowing anything about Cruiserweight, you'd probably assume this must be the Element 101 singer and guitarst's new band.

This album is totally worth checking out, maybe even worth buying, but your money would be better spent on Element 101's Stereo Girl, The Rocking Horse Winner's State Of Feeling Concentration, or Tuuli's Here We Go. Hopefully Vermont was one of the newer songs they wrote for the album, and we'll get to hear more songwriting of that standard on their next release.

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