Picturesque
Do You Feel O.K?

It was a quite picturesque artwork for the album called Do You Feel O.K? And that looked like a question, if that was the case then yes. It is the second album by the band that calls itself Picturesque, the first one was release a couple of years ago and was described by the singer as their take on 2009 post-hardcore. Now they are doing something of a style the same singer claims not to have heard before, that would have my interest peaked immediately – that is, if I hadn’t heard the album already. I think the singer listens to very little music, and especially that from the label his band is on.

This is in the same style as most stuff that I get from Kinda who promote Rude Records, Pure Noise and other labels that release post-hardcore, pop-punk and that kind of modern rock music – and I should point out that I often like their stuff. This album is not as unique as the singer claims, it is not really taking them out of the box they were placed in from the first album. Still, it is good that they want to avoid ending up in a certain box, that might give them bigger freedom to create in the future. This fits the post-hardcore, pop-punk, modern hardrock description, youthful music, punky singer, fairly energetic, kind of how you can describe bands like Boston Manor, Can’t Swim, Silverchair, the other similar bands and millions of other bands. It is not different at all, but easy to take to with a good singer and strong production.

They have several positive aspects to their music; it is a style that it is easy to like and they do sound fine. I think though that it tends to become more and more bland the closer it gets to the end. The first four or five tracks I hear makes this album sound very well and good but then I tend to just lose interest completely and at the end I am not paying attention at all. It is an album that fails in the important area of keeping the audience listening, at least if that audience is me – it should be said that I have seen several reviews pointing out similar opinions, so it is not only me. It is not brilliant to make 38 minutes seem like a too long album, especially in a genre like this.

Crimes is probably my favourite track; it stands out from the rest and I like that one. In fact, I kind of like the first four or five tracks before I start losing interest. And it doesn’t require much time for me to find that I want to dismiss this album, and that it what I do now – I don’t think it is worthwhile investing almost forty minutes of a life in an album like this. They should be able to do better, but until then you can always pick up almost any album from the same label to get a similarly styled album that sounds a lot better.

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