Review: Across the Atlantic – First Things First

Review: Across the Atlantic
Album: First Things First
Rating: 4/5

If you like bands like A Day to Remember, Four Year Strong and Set Your Goals then San Antonio’s Across the Atlantic will easily appeal to you. The band, consisting of 5 members, is easily a throw back to the glory days of those bands. Their new EP, First Things First, was produced by none other than Andrew Wade who has worked with A Day to Remember! There are always parts of a band’s sound that get changed by it’s production and this is certainly no exception. From beginning to end, you might feel as though you are listening to an ADTR b-sides album. Does that make the band untalented? Does that make the album any less enjoyable? No. It lacks a bit of originality, which can always cause problems for a listener, but I refuse to call it a bad listen. In the 15 minutes that it hits your ears, you get pop-punk melody mixed with post-hardcore flavor. You also get some aggression on bits of the album, which (to me) seems to work a bit better for them. Honestly, though, if they’d have left the ADTR-influence out… I don’t feel that First Things First would be near as enjoyable as it turned out to be.

I’m not going to be harsh on this band for the lack of originality. In fact, if you haven’t noticed, many bands sound like a certain band on their first couple of albums. A band has to find their niche, find their sound and find that cohesive quality that will make them a household name. In essence, ATA is more than just a great band. You can tell that they put a lot of hard work into First Things First and I commend them greatly on that. I hope that they find (or begin to find) their own sound with their next release. In any case, I believe that many will enjoy this EP both musically and lyrically. If you haven’t checked the band out, be sure to do so using the links below!

Merch
iTunes
Amazon
Google Play

“Written for Hollywood” (Lyric Video)