CD Review of...
Throwback
Border Crossing
By: Zia Hassan
If you’ve grown tired of the meaningless indie pop poseurs and the forced college-boy rock, then you’re probably searching for something that’s smart, but also easy to listen to. Throwback’s new record, “Border Crossing” is just that – a fluid album which is extremely inviting and listener friendly.
These Montreal based acoustic rockers seem to know the perfect ingredients—because they’ve cooked up fourteen musical treats on their latest disc. The fun chord progressions, witty lyrics, soaring harmonies, and solid instrumentation found on Border Crossing make it a great acoustic rock album that will please many different audiences. Dispatch and Guster fans will swoon at the intense rhythms and energetic guitar riffs, while fans of John Mayer and Jason Mraz will enjoy Throwback’s fantastic sense of melody, wonderful songwriting skills, and sensational harmonies. But despite similarities to other bands in their genre, Throwback’s songs certainly separate them from the rest of the crowd. While they do write the occasional love song, many of the tunes on their album stay away from the girl who broke their heart a year ago, and instead analyze a wide spectrum of topics. But it isn’t just the songs themselves - the production and arrangements are also expertly composed, and are reminiscent of Vertical Horizon’s earlier records.
The song spectrum on “Border Crossing” is quite diverse. With tunes ranging from nostalgic love anthems (“September”) to quirky hip hop fused acoustic rock tunes (“Black Coffee”), to their qualms with society (“Promise”), Throwback provides a little something for everyone. And what is truly impressive is that as fantastic as their full length album is, there is still an enormous amount of room for Throwback to grow and become one of the biggest college rock acts in America.