“Here we come, we don’t care if you’re ready or not.” So warns Runner Runner on their self-titled debut, daring you to try to halt their floor shaking beat on the second song, “Unstoppable.”
Most of the lyrics are cheesy and easy enough to memorize, especially to anyone who has experienced the frustration of unrequited teenage love or can manage to simply string a few words together, and the metaphors won’t challenge anyone over the age of 10; “loving you only gave me papercuts.” Good thing those pounding drums and synthesizers come along later to bandage things up.
A vocoder is experimented with but seems to fall flat. An acoustic guitar and a violin make attempts at maturity but get shot down by those lyrics that cater to a heart that will forget about that crush by next week. Clapping on downbeats and a group chorus add a few tired bullet points on the more feel good tunes like “Life After You.”
Every song flies in under the four minute mark, just long enough of an attention span to deliver the inspirational chorus a few times: “When you think you’re falling, just get up, just get up.” I wonder if these guys have a therapy license.
A closer look at the instrumentation displays evidence of more than enough practice before recording, with drums, guitars, vocals and keys all blending together nicely. They don’t try for anything different, but they seem happy to show off all of the work they’ve put into making the album as cohesive as possible.
Those who would rather steer clear of the deep end of the music spectrum and prefer to wade in the kiddy pool with extra sunblock will have fun here shouting along to the lyrics and bobbing their heads to the convenient beats.
In A Word: Neutered
