The Academy is...

I'm sorry it's been a while lovers!! I will start posting often and will pimp out this blog ;)

Anyway, for those who know me. my total GUILTY pleasure is The Academy Is...
Yes, I'm a lover of the band and of course of out emo hero, William Beckett.

Being that I am a devout fan, and they are coming to my hometown on NY ;) I thought I would post a review of their not so new album Santi. Mind you, I loved this album, but my good friend at NYU disagreed. So here's her review... Thanks to Liat for sending me this review - even if she is a pretentious bitch for not LOVING the album the way I did!!
Be sure to notice her clever usage of song titles in the review! :)


<3 <3
- Ash
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Santi:
By Liat




When it comes to The Academy Is…, one ‘Phrase that Pays’ lingers in my mind… ‘William Beckett is the sex,’ and The Academy Is… is his sex act of choice. A man who looks as androgynous as he sounds, William has female fans in a frenzy of love and male fans in a daze of envy. The band is well-known for its stage presence, its catchy hooks and the lyrics of a 22-year-old music prodigy.

We all have been anxiously awaiting the release of the new TAI album, Santi. The band promised a new sound, and a record that would please its old fans while enticing new ones. Yet, on this new disc, TAI has changed its sound so drastically that had it not been for Beckett’s distinct voice, one would not recognize the album as the band’s work at all. While this plays in the band’s favor by allowing it to enter a harder rock genre, it is also the primary problem with the new album. The band’s previous work has been inviting singles one could not stop listening to. Every song begged to be played a million times, every lyric felt as if the teenage world had been etched on one simple CD. With its new release, the band seems to lack the spark they once had. Fans used to force their way to front rows in order to see the band play songs like “Classifieds,” “Down and Out,” and “Attention, Attention,” on Santi it’s hard to imagine fan’s forcing their way anywhere.

This is not to say that there are no satisfying songs on the new record. Songs like “Same Blood” and “Seed” are both fun and catchy. “You Might Have Noticed” seems to be the most intimate song of disc, guiding us line by line through Beckett’s emotional journey leading up to this album. But the rest of the album leaves us isolated wanting to get closer to him.

A recent article in AP magazine paints an intimate picture of Beckett’s innermost turmoil and pain, reminding us of the emo god we all fell in love with on Almost Here. Beckett himself told AP that he felt a lot of pressure writing Santi, and that at times, this pressure led him to contemplate suicide much like Pete Wentz of FOB. (The song “I’ve got a Dark Alley and …” is about Wentz’s attempted suicide after “Take This to Your Grave” and before “From Under the Cork Tree.”) With “You Might Have Noticed,” Beckett lets us enter his personal thoughts saying, “Feel the pleasure,Feel the pain… The beast within the burden is all mine…” However, one cannot understand why most of the other tracks, have become less relatable, and sadly less ‘Beckett-like.’ If this review could make noise, you could hear my heart breaking.

The change in sound, from an alternative mix of pop punk, to a harder rock style, especially noticeable in the guitar solos, can be attributed to the change in lineup before Santi was recorded. Michael Guy Chislett replaced previous guitarist Tom Conrad. TAI has stated that Santi is an example of the new sound they intend to be using in future albums..

In the song Black Mamba from Almost Here, TAI declares, “When they review the debut, what if the critics hate you… Well, they can love it, or leave it, or rip it apart.We're living while we're singing… So I guess that's a step in the right direction.” Well, I do love TAI, but let’s hope this review will inspire them to write more Black Mamba’s. Instead of “Everything We Had” let’s hope TAI give everything they had on previous recordings. So while, with the album Almost Here, The Academy Is… really was almost there, now with Santi, William Beckett may be the sex, but The Academy Is… not.