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about this album
To describe the band The Rocket Summer there are several sources to draw for comparison. The emotive pop music is not breaking the pavement in new ground, but alters course enough from peers to call it unique. The sound is like The All-American Rejects without the plastic processed finish, and the singer, Bryce Avary, is like Ben Kweller riddled with ADD and amped up on 1,000 Sweet Tarts and 100 Jumbo Pixie Sticks, and his lyrics are like Dashboard Confessional, an expulsion of thoughts sung out for the listener, like a diary word vomit, except, rather than music to slit-wrists to, these confessions are irrevocably strained with heart-stretching, hopeful optimism that cannot be squelched, a determined, unswayable, scrawny little brother that will not quit. He’s incredibly charming, catchy numbers like ‘Around the Clock’ endear you with an evocative chorus and his boyish dreams. He inspires sympathy, like you need to hug him and protect him, when you hear the track ‘Never Knew’, which quotes the albums title, “Hello, Good Friend”. It’s a softly-melancholic, and simultaneously explosively-hope filled, song that sounds like he’s singing a letter this time, rather than his diary. A letter to someone sung with enough emotion that it would actually shake the recipient to the bone. And he’s just silly, like a little goof; the song ‘Brat Pack’ inspires thoughts of a Disney Afternoon dance party. In every track he solidifies the image of that favorite littlest brother and you love
