Wakey! Wakey!
Everything I Wish I'd Said The Last Time I Saw You...
(Family Records)
Rating: 2.3 of 5
The halls of ivy are chock-full of college dudes and chicks, walking around campus with their Apple In-Ear Headphones on, listening to fresh brand-names of pop/rock. They watch their reality shows and coming-of-age television dramas. It's the accessibility provided through these mediums to allow talented young songsters, like Michael Grubbs of Wakey! Wakey!, to bleed onto the scene--one familiar soundtrack tune at a time.
The barely twenty-somethings who recognize him as 'Grubbs' (the bartender) on the young adult targeted, popular CW network program, One Tree Hill, will be the ones to seek out Almost Everything I Wish I'd Said The Last Time I Saw You....
From the upstart indie music scene of Brooklyn, Grubbs puts another foot forward into the limelight having polished off a healthy batch of piano-driven pop for Family Records. The anticipated debut from Grubbs' outfit, Wakey! Wakey!, is teeming with the charm and intellect that attracts the heed of the some of the youngest of Generation Y.
The brooding, brown study of songs like "War Sweater" (featured in a season finale episode of One Tree Hill) and the uplifting buoy of the title track represent the prominent parts of AEIWISTLTISY. Catchy, repetitive monosyllabic refrains on "The Oh Song" and "22" make for easy singalongs. But, to note, Grubbs' vocally-fit laments on hope and dignity lack the profundity needed to weightily impact the listener's affection. More so, it presents itself like affectation.
Channeling his best Adam Levine, hooky jams like "Feral Love" recall Maroon 5 in flavor and spunk. Tasting of a little Regina Spektor influence, "Take It Like A Man" throbs with Balkan-inflected anti-folk before reconciling to its chorus of Snow Patrol-sounding climax. Faint traces of James Blunt and David Gray can also be heard, at times, during the long-play of the record.
Grubbs, with his fingers on the ivories, plays to the gallery with his own shimmering variety of compassionate melodies. Occasionally, he prevails. The rest, however, is a cereal bowl full of theater pop.
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