Self-released, 2004
Until the Next Red Light, Ohio's This is Exploding's first full-length release, is bursting at the seams with the energy often associated with artists and the work they lovingly pain over, and with good reason. From "Drive," the opening track, to "Mourning," This is Exploding adopts a near-furious (but not quite there) pace that provides a breath of freshness to their music, resulting in an invigorating album of guitar-rock songs.
While Until the Next Red Light is not without its share of guitar-centric tracks -- indeed, the guitar is the primary focus of the music here, a long-standing tradition of rock music that few bother to break the mould of, which is not to claim that all who don't break the mould to be inferior; clearly such is not the case -- this album is remarkably well-crafted. Far from abrasive, but certainly far from mellow and soothing, Until the Next Red Light is packed with quality songs.
Though these tracks are well-mixed, mastered, and produced, they do fall into a state of repetitive meandering, it seems. While this is not necessarily a negative attribute, it doesn't bode well for the album. Of course, it's not to say that all of the tracks sound the same -- far from it; Until the Next Red Light's tracks are distinguishable in their variation, yet a very similar sound remains throughout. The sound itself is more than fine, but after ten tracks and forty minutes of it, I'm not too heavily inclined to push that play button again, at least for a couple of days -- or so it would seem, until the last track, "Mourning," which ends the album with, arguably, its best track, saving the album from near-disaster.