From the start, Arizona's Desole (pronounced Day-So-Lay) makes no apologies for vocally aping Further Seems Forever, circa Chris Carabba (you know, back when they were pretty good and no one had heard of them and Dashboard Confessional was a year or two away from being hated by all of us over the age of seventeen), nor does the six piece (three guitars?!) shrink from mining all known emo-pop formulas for its debut on Abacus Recordings. This includes, but is not limited to: upbeat songs with catchy choruses; the heartfelt, sensitive vocals; the acoustic track where the band slows things down a bit to show they're even more thoughtful and emotional than what you've already been led to believe; unimpressive drumming; bass lines that are shoved down into the mix; and guitars that carry the songs when the vocals aren't being utilized.

          But god damn it if you aren't singing these fucking songs under your breath throughout the day! There's really no level of annoyance here, per se—the album itself is pretty admirable coming from such a young band, and they seem to already have a good idea of how to catch the listener's ear (or at least this reviewer's). It would help, however, if the band would display some more challenging creativity within the context of its power emo pop, which could allow Desole to avoid melting into the wholly mediocre tunes of "TRL" or any other banal showcase of pop music existence.