Album Details

• Artist: Eastern Conference Champions
• Album: The Southampton Collection
• Label: Fontana Geffen
• Year of Release: 2006
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: green_clash on 2007-06-30

Three songs is all it takes to convince me that the Eastern Conference Champions have the ability to release one of the better albums of 2007. Created by guitarist/singer Josh Ostrander and drummer Greg Lyons and rounded off with bassist Vern Zaborowski, the band has a traditional rock sense about them while keeping in mind what year it is. Opening with the best song on the CD, "Nice Clean Shirt" shows the bands skill at writing accessible songs while not sacrificing their originality. "Gucci No. 3" is a little less energetic as the first and is lacking slightly in it's second half.  However, this isn't a bad song at all. The rhythm guitar is exchanged for a nicely played piano and the highlight of the song is the scorching guitar line played shortly after the chorus. Though the trio has a uniquness to their sound, it's hard not to think of the various incarnations of Radiohead while listening to them. Ostrander has some likeness to Thom Yorke's voice and while the first two songs seem to recall The Bends, the final song reminds of a more structured Kid A. It's a low-key song that features a nice female voice and good use of effects. Though it drags just a tad near the end, overall it's a great song. On July 17th, they'll release their first full-length album, Ameritown, but this three song set will hold me over until then.

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