When bands make strong debut EP’s and sign a record deal, it is often a death trap.
Record companies generally want a full-length out quickly thereafter, forcing the band to remix a few old songs and half-heartedly throw together five or six new ones.
The result ends up being an album that causes the band to lose what made them special in the first place and waters down their entire sound.
Orange County group Eye Alaska avoided that pitfall and released one the most refreshing albums in quite some time with their full-length debut, “Genesis Underground.”
A few years ago, the band released “Yellow & Elephant,” an EP with five songs showing casing different sounds that blended rock, pop and R&B together. “Genesis Underground” is a strong progression since that EP, but still holds that special sound that got them attention by Fearless Records in the first place.
The album starts off with “Walk Like A Gentleman,” their first single. The song is smooth and is the definition of the “Eye Alaska Sound” that makes the band unique.
R&B/Rap artist VerBS makes appearances on two of the three next tracks “Show Me DaLuv” and “Star Pilot.” VerBS appearance adds some heavy hip-hop influence on the songs, but somehow still meshes well with the band’s sound.
Following is “American Landslide,” “The Legion Night (Rorrim Ehtni Lived)” and “Good To Go,” which all deliver a good blend of rock, pop and R&B.
The album’s best track comes after, in “Miles Don’t Mean Anything.” The song is the band’s ballad. Lead singer Brandon Wronski’s voice guides the song over a layer of acoustic guitars, with a light drum beat added in the latter part of the song. Wronski’s voice softly sings “When rains it pours in this town, a little darkness closes in, when I’m not around I hope somehow that you can feel me, ’cause miles don’t mean anything.”
If the band was signed to a major label, this song would be played on every hit radio station constantly.
The album make take a few listens to totally take in all the different types of musical genres and sounds used, but in the end, “Genesis Underground” has the potential to be a top 10 album of 2009.
While the music scene today is constantly being slammed for having each and every band sound the same (some criticism is warranted), Eye Alaska is a breath of fresh air to a genre clouded in similarity.

Four out of five stars.

lifeline@cm-life.com

E-mail the author: Tim Ottusch