Lukewarm water music.
Sizzling out of the ashes from Post-Hardcore stars Hot Water Music, Floridian four-piece The Draft emerge to show that re-vamped and reinvented, they still have something to offer the world!
First song on 'In Million Pieces' is 'New Eyes Open' which is a fitting start for a band starting over again. It's a punchy melodic number with anthem aspects in it's up beat musical direction and catchy hooks. 'Lo Zee Rose' is slightly darker with thumping drums and deep chugging guitars, but even with the tad-gravely vocals, the chorus is still up lifting. 'Let It Go' has almost an Irish feel to it which is kind of fitting when you listen to the lyrics...
"In a million pieces, we're wasting away," sings Chris Wollard in the addictive 'Alive Or Dead', where as the tight rhythm section is for all to see in 'Impossible', a mid tempo number that plods along without impacting much further than the music. There is a definite nod towards stoner rock in 'Wired', and you could almost be listening to Queens Of The Stone Age with the thick pogo riffs and the clean simple drums, and even though this may be a downside, I can't help but love it!
'All We Can Count On' is about as close to a ballad as you are going to get, though it's more of a sing-a-long than a gentle tale of broken hearts and puppies. Both 'Out Of Tune' and 'Longshot' are the sort of songs that The Draft need to concentrate on as they have original structures and yet bring about an accessibility that is almost paramount in the fickle music industry. Last song 'The Tide Is Out' gentle brings the album to a close, and I am left wondering just where The Draft are trying to go with this.
Musically, 'In A Million Pieces' is a good album, but what is lacking are songs that grab you by the balls and refuse to let go. There are flashes in 'New eyes Open', 'Let It Go', Out Of Tune' 'Wired' and 'Longshot', but dare I say that it could only be the connection with Hot Water Music that will bring them success.
There is nothing particularly bad about the album, only that it cross-dresses with a number of genres without creating a total sound that stands alone. Perhaps I have totally missed something, but as Roy Walker once said, "It's good, but it's not quite right."