Dave Melillo - Talk Is Cheap [Bonus Track] (CD)

All Music Guide

Seventeenyearold singer/songwriter Dave Melillo will make you wish you were in high school or at least at an age where summers are still carefree days of wasting time with friends and navigating through butterfliesinthestomach relationships. His earnest DriveThru debut, Talk Is Cheap, is an acoustic and pianotinged homage to restless youth that is ready for the embracement of his poppunk brethren and not just the ones going through excruciating breakups. It's hardly a shock that Jamie Wisner, the man behind the controls for Dashboard Confessional's first albums, produced the EP. His skill is perfect for the job, as Melillo's music is based in the same school of heartfelt rock that can simultaneously burst with bright passion on one track and strip back down to an emoting voice and sixstrings on the next. As is the case, the EP sounds like the result of early Dashboard and the Starting Line blended into one freshfaced emo milk shake with a touch of the Rocket Summer's boyish charm spr...inkled on top for taste. Though the styling is similar, it's this combination that keeps the young songwriter a step past being another sulking Chris Carrabba acoustic clone: Basically, he just seems happier. Of course, love still hurts ("Sam's Song," "Morris County Blues"), but it's when Melillo unaffectedly addresses more agespecific topics like moving on past high school and appreciating one's youth that he shines. Quirky keyboards and handclaps help "Vatican Roulette" explore the awkwardness of a guy losing his virginity by following the naïve bravado of the drunken, noteworthy night, while "Knights of the Island Counter" is simply a summery ode to being young and enjoying life. Simple and pretty straightforward in his delivery, the notyetlegal Melillo still has room to grow past the obvious hallmarks driving DriveThru's roster and the Dashboard Confessional branch of emo. But he's just getting started, and Talk Is Cheap is encouraging in that he has already found more to say outside of yesterday's broken heart. [A Japanese version added a bonus track.] - Corey Apar, All Music Guide Read more Less