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THE ACADEMY IS... - Fast Times At Barrington High
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| This Illinois quartet's name may mysteriously trail off, but one thing's for sure: The Academy Is...Loves...Girls. Much like their labelmates Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco the band adheres to the poppier, more anthemic end of the emo spectrum, and eschews the genre's poor-me platitudes for good times — specifically, the kind that you can have with the opposite sex. Songs like ''About a Girl'' and ''Coppertone'' are sunny, jangling, and easily melodic — ideal dog-days-of-summer distractions....full text |
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| Allmusic |
| For half a decade, the Academy Is... watched from the sidelines as Fall Out Boy became the Midwestern kings of emo. Fast Times at Barrington High makes a well-deserved grab for the crown, flaunting a combination of rock & roll bombast and pop-schooled songwriting. It's albums like this that challenge the definition of emo, an amorphous genre whose current bands sound little like their 20th century ancestors. There's no whining here, no heart-wrenching lyrics, and few indications that William Beckett's group is anything but an energetic pop/rock outfit. So while Fast Times pushes the Academy Is... into the upper echelon of emo bands, it also challenges the genre's entire composition, making it one of the most interesting emo-related albums since Jack's Mannequin's Everything in Transit....full text |
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| Nytimes |
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Last year the Chicago emo outfit the Academy Is ... released its second album, “Santi,” which was many things its predecessor was not: ornate, drawn from a range of musical influences, lyrically mature. And also a flop. This is not a band built for complexity, and so on “Fast Times at Barrington High,” its third album, it has trimmed the fat. Gone are the considered ballads, the bits of falsetto, the nods to new wave and goth. This is a streamlined, plain-spoken record full of breaking hearts and sticky choruses, and it’s also the band’s best....full text |
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