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Alternate Routes travels uneasy path

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by Brett Myers

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Good and Reckless and True

There is no shortage these days of sensitive male singers willing to croon their life stories. Tim Warren and his Bridgeport, Connecticut-based band, the Alternate Routes, seem no exception, based on their debut album, Good and Reckless and True.

The Alternate Routes' style resembles something similar to their mainstream big-brothers The Fray, but leans toward classic rock emulation and a more piano-based sound.

Good and Reckless and True begins on a mid-tempo beat with the track "Ordinary." Upon first listen, you might find yourself asking where you have heard this before, as the Alternate Routes employ a formula proven to sell records and rarely stray from it throughout the album's duration.

Things appear to pick up with the album's second track, the drum-laden "Who Cares?" In it, Warren sings of the desperation that life occasionally throws at us and the search for answers that follows. While this track isn't a departure in terms of creativity from "Ordinary," its raucous intro and chorus provide for one of the album's more memorable tracks.

Track 5 is the other standout, with the band armed with a groovy guitar riff on the catchy song "Going Home with You." Following that, Good and Reckless and True presents its best offering in the radio-friendly tune "Time Is a Runaway." Fueled by Warren's soaring vocals, the foot-tapping "Time Is a Runaway" could easily find a home on any top 40 station.

As the album progresses, however, the listener is presented with a string of unremarkable tracks that range from driving rock songs to quiet ballads. It isn't until Track 10, titled "The Black and The White," that the Alternate Routes finally cross the line into the piano ballad, which the band flirts with throughout the album. Sounding again like something from The Fray or Augustana, "The Black and The White" finds Warren professing his happiness after moving on from a bad situation. While the track is nothing to marvel at, it does present something for those of us with a soft spot for earnest, Billy Joel-esque singing over meandering piano chords.

In the end, the Alternate Routes' Good and Reckless and True is nothing we haven't heard a thousand times before. Their take on a cookie-cutter approach that has proven successful for so many bands before them yields a few positive results, and the final product is not a bad album. However, the band's sheer unoriginality hinders what otherwise could have been a solid debut.

2 stars out of 5

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