Music Review: Sons of Sylvia

Sons of Sylvia's debut album "Revelation" contains a variety of styles of music. The general genre of the new group, comprised of three brothers from Virginia, would be classified as Pop/Country.

Upon reviewing the album, I had no idea what to expect. I would not naturally pick up a pop record and listen to it all the way through. However, there were some parts of this album that I was pleasantly surprised by.

Right off the bat, the band caught my interest with the catchy first track "John Wayne." From there, the band continues to roll on through the album delivering plenty of catchy guitar and vocal hooks. Through the first four songs, John Wayne, Love Left to Lose, Revelation, and 50 Ways, I couldn't help but tap my foot to the beat as much as my "anti-pop" forces were telling me not to.

After these four songs, I began to lose interest in the album. The songs began to become monotonous upon reaching this point. There were no fresh ideas, no new guitar leads, no groundbreaking amazing vocals that I hadn't heard in the first few tracks of the album. The lyrics became very corny, which should have been foreshadowed by the first line of the entire album, "Baby I want you back in my arms. . .". The band claims to have written more the 300 songs for the album. However, I find this hard to believe due to the albums lack of originality. While the album lost its luster towards the end, there were still songs I really enjoyed.
The best song off the album is track 4: "50 Ways." This song is noticeably different from the others. Centered around the vocal line "She left me in the middle of the night in a middle of a fight," 50Ways is the most driving song on the album and is, in my opinion, the song most qualified for air play. I couldn't help but break into a smile at the point in which the band kicked in after about 30 seconds.

Overall, the album is catchy; particularly if you are into pop or country. All three brothers undeniably have talent as is evidenced by the instrumental quality of the album. The raw potential is definitely there. However, these three men need to mature as songwriters in order to truly compile a "hit" album. If there were just the first four songs on the album the rating would be 4.5/5. But due to lack of originality and monotony amongst songs, the rating is 3/5.