John Nolan - "Height"

Oh John Nolan. I want to like you so badly. I'm super glad that you're back in Taking Back Sunday, because that's badass, but wow. Honey. Um.

I've had Height in my car for a while now, and I've only listened to part of it. But since I was stuck in traffic for a solid hour yesterday, I decided "why the hell not give this a listen, since I'm just sitting here!" So I did.

It's... strange. Nolan doesn't seem to have the ability to keep his voice from going super gratingly nasal on occasion, which is a blower because otherwise he's got a pretty nice voice. But his solo album is like the bastard love child of Straylight Run's The Needles, The Space and Brand New's The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me. The bastard love child that nobody wants to claim.

The first track, "'Til It's Done To Death" is weirdly electronic, and sets the tone for the rest of the album. It's all pretty weird, and it's strange to say that his cover of Primitive Radio Gods's "Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand" is hands down the best track on the album.

Instead of getting this, you should pick up Live At Looney Tunes CDs, which is a live acoustic album (which you can get here at ThinkIndie for five bucks) to hear the good songs without the electronica weirdness, the cover, and a bunch of in-between song banter that involves the other dudes in Taking Back Sunday heckling him.

-julieann