Second Hand Serenade Album Review A Twist in My Story Reviewed by John Hashop

There's an old joke that goes "What do you get when you cross the faux-symphonic over-the-toppery of Coldplay with a hammering-the-letter-R-in-every-word punk-pop vocal style and then throw in that poem you wrote in high school when your first girlfriend dumped you?" And the answer, of course, is "A mess".

Okay, so that's not really an old joke, but it's an eerily accurate description of the majority of Secondhand Serenade's sophomore release, A Twist in My Story. And don't get me wrong, I like good punk-pop, and I will listen to Bright Eyes wail about every last insecurity. I even like Coldplay. But when I actually found myself singing "Fix You" under my breath during "Goodbye", one of the many over-orchestrated tracks on Twist, I lost all patience with the entire album.

Secondhand Serenade is, for all intents and purposes, guitarist/vocalist/everythingist John Vesely's solo project. The pseudonym is a reference to the fact that all of the songs are written as serenades to Vesely's wife, and that we, the fortunate voyeurs (écouteurs?) are listening to these songs secondhand. I wouldn't have such a huge problem with this conceit if Vesely and his wife didn't, evidently, keep breaking up and getting back together all the damn time. "My whispers turn to shouting," Vesely sings on the title track, "The shouting turns to tears / Your tears turn into laughter / And it takes away our fears" Where's the song about ordering in Chinese and watching a Mythbusters marathon on Discovery in bed?

Musically (and ironically), there are no surprises on Twist; you'll find yourself guessing the next chord correctly 4 out of 5 times. Not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, but the homogeneity of the tracks coupled with "Please get your relationship in order" lyrics make for a deadly combination.

And this is too bad, because listening to Serenade's debut Awake, which is simply Vesely and his acoustic, there is so much potential for so much more rawness and, dare we make up the word, listenability. Awake's engaging simplicity throws the meddling of Twist's producers Butch Walker and Danny Lohner (of Nine Inch Nails fame) into sharp relief. Simply put, the full-scale orchestrations detract from Vesely's angst and render his rare tender moments saccharine. Nobody wants to be a poor man's Dashboard Confessional (a scary thought), and hopefully it's not too late for Serenade to backtrack to his strengths.

The Album is available at Amazon.com.