CMJ Music Marathon 2008 Day 3: Johnny Foreigner

This English trio have obviously been catching up on their early ‘90s quintessential indie rock and emo and formulating their own style upon that style. Not exactly a bad thing, but at certain times they were shooting for Built to Spill, others they were shooting for Sunny Day Real Estate type riffage. It’s fun to listen to on the surface level, but not much else. If that’s what they are going for, then they succeeded. But to provide an audience of industry folk with a formulaic sound is like sticking your hand on the stove to make sure its hot—frankly, a bad idea.

—John Bohannon