Sound Sustainability
Kyle M. Lane | Jacksonville, FL USA | 01/26/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Philly's lovers Valencia comes back with their sophomore pop-driven emotional punk rock release "We All Need a Reason to Believe". This is the band's first major-label release for Columbia Records. The album flows well with most songs corresponding to the unfortunate passing of lead vocalist Shane Henderson's girlfriend. Henderson also let out some of his frustration and pain on his solo acoustic release under the moniker Promise of Redemption. He released that album in December of 2007 (also recommended). While we expected that Shane was finished outleting his emotions; he yet again decided to use his girlfriend Dana as inspiration for the majority of this album's tracks. Not a bad thing, though; it just sounds like Promise of Redemption with electrical instruments and a drummer.
Overall, this is a good album. There's not a whole lot of surprise or swagger instrumentally, which is expected in this genre, but the point of pop-punk is not complexity of musical composition, but more focusing on the melodic attraction of each individual verse/chorus/bridge. In other words, this genre is meant to breed catchy songs. That's what makes a great pop-punk band. Valencia can last in this particular venue, but these types of bands have a tendency to not exist for very long. We will see; they have release two solid albums, and I expect to see more, as always."