Cartel - Chroma (CD)

All Music Guide

There's nothing new under the sun, especially not in pop music, and there's absolutely nothing new or innovative or even particularly forwardlooking about Cartel's big guitars, big hooks and bigvoiced lead singer. That's not to say that this Atlantabased band is retro at all on the contrary, it's just very much a creature of its time. Call this music poppunk if you want, but really it's just pop, and more power to them. The album opens powerfully, with two pitchperfect exercises in hookswise guitar rock, the bombastic but tight "Say Anything (Else)" and "Honestly". When things start getting a bit soft it's less a problem with the music than it is a problem with the lyrics: "Save Us" is nothing but a pile of cliches and meaningless phrases ("Now it's all gone but what it takes to make it real/We're standing on the edge of this"), and there's something vaguely creepy about the footballchant phraseology in "Burn This City". Perhaps worst of all is "Minstrel's Prayer", which actually cont...ains the line "Oh carry on, you minstrels of the world." Yeesh. But most of the songs are much less embarrassing than those three, and the big, tight guitars and cathartic chord progressions go a long way toward redeeming even those. Recommended. - Rick Anderson, All Music Guide Read more Less