One Purpose, One Destination
- Artist: Parker Theory
- Album released in 2005
- Genres: Alternative, Rock
Hometown CD Review 3-3-05
Album Name: One Purpose, One Destination
Parker Theory is the marriage of hard-driving sounds and positive power-pop energy. "Last Nightmare" and "Fugatzo" show that the band doesn't have to be screaming or blasting out power chords to totally rock (though it's obvious that it is what they do best).
Each song has its own feel, ranging from alternative to punked-out emo to '80s pop, but the six-song EP lacks anything with real intensity. In "Leap Year," traditional hard-rocking angst is offset with sparse keyboards, giving the cut the feel of something from Simple Minds or Flock of Seagulls.
Frontman Jesse Pruett gives an energetic and emotive performance, his abrasive voice slipping into the foreground of tumultuous guitars and enduring percussion. Pruett sings, "Running from darkness / I'm empty but you fill me up / time is running out / these burning senses lead me to you / from here / behind this wall." (The lyrics could be better.) Just as the keyboarding is about to conjure aural imagery of Boy George's deep purr, the song fades.
Remaining tracks "Say What You Feel" and "Passport to Postcard" have themes centered on regret. Pruett sings, "The clock on the wall climbs up to fall" (egads!). While creative instrumentation makes the group intrepid, the album remains generic with its pop sensibility. Angst-ridden inflections sung along to the same three chords -- granted, they're catchy chords, often in the key of melancholy -- but unless you like your pop/punk/emo heavy on banality, don't bother.