The Agency: Turn

Coming from the same launching pad as Seville and Dashboard Confessional (as in members of both bands here), The Agency is open for business on the power punk of “Walking Disaster”. It seems to flatten out near the homestretch, but is still quite good. “Found” is a winding, power ballad kind of ditty that is adequate but not jaw-dropping, meanwhile “I’m Innocent!”, an urgent, punchy song, is a great effort driven by drummer and vocalist Mike Marsh. Perhaps the best thing the band has going for it — aside from their highbrow smarts like Jimmy Eat World — is that they’re not too “emo” but not hard, heavy rock a la Nickelback or other meaty, beefy brutish bands. This is illustrates on “Picture”, which balances those two musical tendencies. The sleeper picks on Turn are the deliberate “Chasing” and “Mary Mourn”, which rides a lovely melody in the vein of XTC, albeit with a tad more edge or bite. However, they hit the wall head on with the tender, soppy “Clean Water”.