If you have ever been in girl scouts, you probably know the line from one of the many songs, “Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, and the other's gold". Well, that verse is my exact feeling towards the new Summer Set and Cartel albums that came out this past week. See, Cartel is my "old friend". I’ve been following this band for about 3 years now, and when I found out about the newest album coming out this October, I freaked. But before the album was to come out, a new band that I recently heard of was coming out with their debut album "Love Like This" just before Cartel's "Cycles"...and in light of my girl scout wisdom, I fully embraced this new album. And just to say, I am glad I did. Both pop/rock records are insane and so awesome.
The first song I heard of from this band was from their debut album Love Like This, was "Chelsea" when I saw music video (under). I completely loved the song and the sound, so I checked out their other songs, from their older EPs, and I have to say how exited I was when I realized they were getting ready for their album to drop. The songs are a lot like their older ones, which I'm sure more devout fans appreciate, but have this satisfying new edge to go along with this milestone of theirs--their first full length album! They write their own songs, so you have these cutting lyrics filled with love, malice and everything in between; you hear Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 “I’ve been addicted to this story of a girl/who can help this boy meet world/ and sweep me off my feet again” then in the next song, "You're making me sick, girl (oh, oh)/I heard you're talking shit again/I'm gonna sleep with all your friends". The album is super duper, I love it; they are so real with stuff like relationships--no sugar coating, just raw feeling put on paper and sung to me. Both of these are sort of shown through the song that initially made me want to hear more from Summer Set, "Chelsea". As soon as I heard, "I wrote her a song/Not Delilah, not Kelsey/Got them both in my palm/But I'd drop them for Chelsea" I wanted to hear everything by them. As you can tell by my raving, I was not disappointed.
The way my heart soared, when I heard lead singer Will Pugh's voice filled my ears singing the new, unrecognizable songs to me…it was indescribable; I was exited for the potential of the next week, when I would spend my free time learning and falling into love with each of the songs from Cartel's Cycles album. Its been such a long time since I heard, I mean really heard, these guys and the fact that after all this time they still have me swooning over the lyrics and the sound of their music is incredible to me. The sound is a bit rougher that Chroma or Cartel, or any EP, but it’s still the same Cartel I fell in love with 3 years ago. The lyrics still have those yearning twangs and pointed opinions and feelings, which I’ve grown to need in the songs I listen to. The first single from the album, “Let’s Go”, is the perfect song for this new album. It starts as “Let me reintroduce myself/As a man with a cause/I’ve had a lot of time to think/And look at who we are” and perfectly fits this album, relative to the others songs/albums/EPs. The second single, “Perfect Mistake” definitely prepared me for this slightly edgier sound they have in this new album (at least I think there is an edgier sound. Maybe more rock and punk than pop?). But like I said, Cartel is Cartel is Cartel and I definitely love Cartel. Once you guys, old fans, new fans, never-heard-of-them-before-but-soon-to-be-fans, hear this new album, you definitely will love them too.
AHHHHHHH: I just heard Summer Set is promoting this album on tour WITH CARTEL! Pshh, can you guess who’s gonna be front row? Well, hint: she has two thumbs and loves it when people comment on her articles. That’s right ;]
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