No deliverance from mediocrity

The pop “punk” sound lives on.

Soft voices and loud guitars permeate the latest release from the Minneapolis pop/rock quintet Quietdrive. The band’s new album Deliverance is an exercise in sugary music with a motif rooted in radio-friendly rock. While not every song sounds the same, there’s not exactly an abundance of versatility either.

One of the album’s finest cuts is its catchy title track. This lively piece blasts out with a glaringly emotive blend of lead singer Kevin Truckenmiller’s soft voice and a multitude of highly produced guitar tracks. Although the song may be a little too sugary, it still sounds good turned up at a high volume.

“Birthday” is a lament for a love lost that shows the band taking a slightly different turn, starting with an acoustic guitar and eventually an electric lead that sounds somewhat derivative of some of the Refreshments’ licks.

The song eventually explodes into a predictable but nice-sounding chorus. Behind the driving rhythm of the chorus exists a nice melodic lead filtered in, tying the chorus together the way the Dude’s rug tied the room together.

The track still revolves around the pop-rock sound, but it’s a refreshing change to see them delve into other sub-genres, even if only for a short spell.

Quietdrive show at times that they have a relative amount of talent and creativity, but most of it is expended trying to sound like other pop radio bands.

Lead guitarist Justin Bonhiver seems to have slightly more talent than most of his predecessors in the pop punk genre, but often times it gets lost in the syrupy mixture of Truckenmiller’s poppy voice and the over-produced sound of the music.

Quietdrive’s sound is somewhere between Yellowcard and The All-American Rejects. Your feelings on those two bands are the only precursors you would need to know whether you would enjoy or hate this album. While not the worst of their respective genre, they don’t likely garner the originality to have real staying power.