Fivespeed
Bella
7.9
How encouraging is this… a band that has not only opened for both Breaking Benjamin and Jimmy Eat World but just finished playing at the Vans Warped Tour, and they DON’T SUCK. Imagine how astonished my ears were when listening to Fivespeed’s four-track EP after reading their biography, which described Jimmy Eat World as “rock gods,” and you’ll get an idea of how floored I was throughout my all-too brief introduction to this Phoenix-based alt-rock group.
Don’t make the mistake of lumping this group in with the generally horrible bands it references in its online biography. This five-piece plays a more traditional style of alt-rock that predates the DJ era of Incubus. Although Fivespeed would have seemed a mildly interesting contribution to an oversaturated market just six or seven years ago, they now read as a refreshing breather from the 2005 standard emo/screamo style of My Chemical Romance and Hawthorne Heights.
If this EP, entitled Bella, is any indication of Fivespeed’s potential, I seriously encourage these guys to spend more time in the studio and less time garnering an audience at future Warped Tours. Before listening to the full EP, I previewed “The Mess” at the group’s MySpace page, and the first thought that came to my mind was, “Holy shit, I hope this band gets picked up by a bigger label so I won’t have to dread listening to the radio anymore.” Their sound is accessible, mostly because the riffs are catchy and the songwriting is impeccable, but I think what will draw most listeners to Fivespeed is its vocalist, Jared Woosley, who is right up there with Brandon Boyd in the modern alt-rock scene in terms of talent (i.e. the ability to not use unintelligible screaming as a crutch).
As an EP, Bella does the one thing that it is supposed to; engrave the name of the group in the listener’s mind so that he or she will pick up the full-length whenever it is released. Each of the four songs differs in sound, offering unique listening experiences independent of each other, and when combined, they point to the fact that Fivespeed is immensely talented. Don’t be surprised if this group signs to a major label and releases a hit single in the next two or three years, when the finicky popular music scene tires of spinning screams recorded over pop/punk chords.
