Friends Don't Speak is an album that owes its origins to the sound of modern rock radio -- hard rock combined with emotional vocals that betray the intensity of the feelings behind them, without the quality needed to convey them properly.
"All in the End" sets the tone for the rest of the disc, musically owing a debt to the Creed/Linkin Park/Nickelback school of thought. In practice, this isn't a horrible thought, until you hear the rest of the disc. Other than "Bea Arthur", which combines an 80's sensibility with the heavier guitar tone, every song here is a clone of the other. Fletcher seems to know one way to build a song -- the guitar and drum progression as well as the quiet verse/loud chorus formula is prevalent throughout.
This is an album that should be relatively popular with the high school hard rock radio crowd, but I can't see anyone else being interested in it. Friends may not speak to Fletcher, but perhaps they should -- in order to let them know when they are repeating themselves.
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Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 2004Reviewed by Trae CadenheadJackson, Mississippi is becoming a nice home for indie music, thanks largely in part to the Esperanza Plantation record company who has given a platform to Bellador, Questions in Dialect, and now Fletcher. Listening to the full-length Friends Don't Speak, it's easy to forget that all of the band members are still teenagers. With a frantic style of rock reminiscent of Cursive, At the Drive-In, and…Similar sounding releases
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