Genuine & Counterfeit is billed as William Beckett’s first full-length release since his band, The Academy Is … , called it quits in 2011, and while such is semantically true, there isn’t much difference between his version of Solo Artist and Lead Singer. “In My Blood” recalls his former band’s “Checkmarks” while “Hanging On A Honeymoon” takes its cues from “Black Mamba”, both tracks substituting an acoustic guitar and mildly slower tempos for the aggression TAI conveyed so brilliantly throughout their 2005 debut, when the singer was barely out of his teenage years.
But it’s 2013 now, and Beckett, currently 28 with a slew of EPs behind him, makes a play for adulthood with Genuine by offering up earnest moments of grandeur that all but beg to be played in stadiums with lots of echo and lots of noise. What Beckett forgets, however, is that part of what made his former group so exciting was his beyond-his-years wit that fell right in line with the other pop-punk mainstays of the day. Here, he trades that in for Very Serious Themes (fatherhood, lost youth), a few more electronic sounds than he should probably use (“Benny & Joon” sounds like a C-side from something Good Charlotte did in 2007) and a concentration on being anthemic rather than substantial. “I want to always feel the way I did/When you caught me by surprise for the first time,” he sings on the made-for-Felicity, organ-laced tear-jerker “Cracks in the Ceiling”. So do we, dude. So do we.