The Score

One Liner:  Bad facsimile of the worst band in rock

Wikipedia Genre: Alternative music, pop rock, pop
Home: LA (but originally from NYC)

Poster Position: 17

Weekend Two Only.

Thoughts:  Like a combination of Imagine Dragons and that Fall Out Boy song they kept using for basketball games of something.  Full of chanting lyrics about some vapid subject like "I WAS BORN FOR THIS!" or "THE REVOLUTION IS COMING!" or "BANG BANG WON'T STOP TIL WE LEGENDS!"  I don't know what that style of singing is called, where it is multi-tracked (but not really harmonizing, more just two versions of the same vocal tracked so that it's like two guys are yelling the same thing at the same time?) and it's half-chant/half-sung?  Very much the Imagine Dragons style.  Like they sat down to write the perfect thing for some faceless exec at CBS to want to use for commercial intro music during SEC Saturdays this fall.  

And under that yelling/chanting/singing thing, you get a pummeling plod of music that is predictably similar in each song.  THUMP clap! THUMP clap! chakaduh <guitar squeal> THUMP clap! THUMP clap! chakaduh <guitar squeal>  If you can't tell, I actively hate this music.  I'm sure they are going to take the Fest by storm and everyone will be talking about their huge show, like 21 Pilots a few years ago.

Wikipedia says that their songs have been used in the 2017 Power Rangers movie soundtrack (perfect), the World Series of Poker main event on EPSN (also perfect), an add for Jeep Grand Cherokee (OK, stop, this is too much), and as background for Dude Perfect videos (WTF, is this an Onion article?).  Their Wikipedia article has no personal details about the two dudes in the band though, just names.  Likewise, their website has no "about" page or other bio.

The name is a good one though, they definitely ... made a good choice on that one.  They apparently considered using E-Squared (both of their names start with the letter E) but made a good choice in keeping the easy and memorable name instead.

So, you've been waiting patiently, hoping for a chance to hear this amazing music for yourself.  Thanks for bearing with me while I ranted.  The most popular track right now is "Legend," with 52.3 million streams.

Oh man, these guys are fucking amazing.  A RESPECT THE FIRST RESPONDERS video too?!?  They are literally banging for marketing at every angle.  That track is from the 2017 album ATLAS, their only disc on Spotify.

Here is a quote from an article, where they talk about how intricate and careful they are when writing songs: "When we write, our method of writing is the path of least resistance. We’ve learned that, to get the creative flow going and to get into a rhythm while you’re writing, you need to make sure you don’t think too much, if that makes any sense. It’s good to think outside the box and whatnot, and get creative – but you don’t want to get too analytical to the point where you’re stalling yourself out, because once you fall down that pit of despair while writing, it’s hard to get out of that writer’s block. So you’ve got to create this creative rhythm and keep going with it. The best way to do that is to just let it flow and not be too critical of yourself. Repetition is always a place we go, because it just works: People want to hear a verse sung the same way the second time as the first time, they want to hear that hook multiple times. We love to do that – we’re not scared of repetition at all. Now, there is such a thing as too much repetition, but we’d rather be too repetitive, and then figure out afterwards how to make it less repetitive, than vice versa."  Makes me think of the way that that one IG song says "thunder" like 75 times and makes me want to curl up and die.

One more track, let's look at the new 2019 EP, which has two tracks that already have 19 million streams.  We'll go with "Glory," with 19.5 million streams.

In addition to the boom clap / guitar squonk, this one adds in a few EDM builds and drills, just to make sure to capture every possible angle for currently popular sound.

I'm sorry if you dig this type of music, I'm just a bitter old man.  But I never want to hear this stuff again.  Can't wait to eat my words when they're the biggest band in the world.