Lunch of Champions

Pictures Of Shanghai

Pictures Of Shanghai are a nice, little group of gents from Tunbridge Wells, United Kingdom. How come Europe has all the cool city names? I grew up in a town called Richmond, moved to a town called Decatur. The only 2-word city I lived in was Los Angeles, and that’s too well-known to be at all interesting.

ANYWAY, this group politely asked me to listen to and review their mySpace tracks, and I’m a sucker for politeness. I Listened to “Oh Tragedy” and “Stand Up and Be Proud”, and the thing that struck me most was the singing abilities of lead singer, Mike Munroe. He can really hit some notes! I’d really like to see what he could do if he pushed himself to be the brink of his abilities. I get the feeling that talented singers could be a lot better if they didn’t settle for doing what they do best but rather attempt to sing at the top of their lungs with intensity…then again, it could just be the studio compression that’s masking the emotion in his voice.

The songs are good, but not great. Fancy, but not gaudy. The best parts are when the whole band chants on “Stand Up and Be Proud”. Overall, I’d say that this band has musical talent, but lacks the songwriting edge that makes bands special. That’s not to say that they can’t get there someday, it just seems to me that they are playing into the hands of commercial interests. Nothing good ever came from people who were trying to be popular. I think all bands should stand up for originality, get rid of compression in the post-production phase of recording and just allow themselves to rock!