Halflives - 'Empty Rooms' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. Lone Wolf 2. Burn 3. Mayday 4. Echo 5. The Sickness 6. Half Alive 7. Empty Room 8. Collide

Halflives embrace the Pop beast within, with an album of songs that could all hold their own in the higher reaches of the charts. Hailing from the Italian town of Modena, bombastic and cinematic would be appropriate words to associate with the band. The album opens with the urgency and unflappable catchiness of ‘Lone Wolf’, although it often drifts into something somewhat generic and all too familiar. A weak opener on an otherwise strong body of work.

Things improve on ‘Mayday’; a track that brings together the finest elements of ‘Hot Fuss’ era Killers and ‘Riot!’ era Paramore. It’s an impressive Emo-Indie hybrid, that doesn’t shy away from a skyscraper chorus or two. ‘Burn’ continues in the same vein, with a chorus that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Lady Gaga album. Next up, ‘Echo’ lives up to its name by refusing to leave your head once you’ve listened to it. Catchy choruses certainly work to the album’s advantage.

‘The Sickness’ sees the band move into more brooding territory, as it deals with the tricky subject of mental illness. ‘Half Alive’ sees the band up the tempo, as perhaps the most Alternative song on the album. The chorus, however, is unmistakably Pop to the core. The urgency continues onto ‘Empty Room’, bringing to mind the likes of The Bravery and Metric. Closing track ‘Collide’ sums the album up nicely, both reflective and brooding, yet urgent, bold and brash.

It’s not a perfect album, it might not change your life, but it’s an impressive collection of songs that deserves your attention.