I've been a fan of this big emo-core/post-hardcore/melodic hardcore/whatever MTV is calling it now genre for a while now. The problem is it's starting to get far too over-saturated. Shake a stick and you'll hit 20 bands that all sound like carbon copies of each other. Wow, Owls! is yet another band hoping to follow in the footsteps of Thursday, The Used, and Thrice. Pick Your Patterns is not the worst CD you'll hear this year-but with so much out there, music fans need to be selective. While this is certainly listenable, even enjoyable, there is better stuff out there.
Lead singer Jeff Byers sounds eerily like Senses Fail vocalist Buddy Nielsen, and the band at times does sound like a more raw and aggressive version of Senses Fail. What they don't do is anything too extraordinary. Wow, Owls! doesn't do much to really break away from the masses of bands who play a similar style of music. The CD is very low budget and the production clearly is not too advanced. The vocals are buried on the tracks, and the record is anything but polished, leading to a lot of songs that end up sounding the same.
Yet there are signs of potential on Pick Your Patterns. Byers' lyrics are good, and his vocals, while nothing out of the ordinary, are solid. "1989: The Best Four Years of My Life" has a great buildup to the solo, a clever melody, and is easily the most complete song on the album. "Your New Favorite Song" has a good chorus and a nice guitar riff. "I'll be Your Huckleberry" and "Chris, Did You Ruin The Dance Party," start off blandly, but have power-packed endings. Besides those four tracks, however, there isn't much else. The other five songs aren't bad, they just aren't anything special or different. If you like bands like Halifax, Alexisonfire, and Hawthorne Heights, you'll like this album. It's not bad. But with so much on the market, something really needs to go above and beyond the competition to get my attention, and Pick Your Patterns doesn't hit that level.
2.5/4
