Fire
The lyrical delivery is as good as it's ever been, and the guitarplay complements nicely. Poets of the Fall have made a name for their awesome chorus work, and Fire lives up to that perfectly. You know it's Poets of the Fall from the moment the singing begins, and this album could probably very easily have been released as part of Signs of Life as a two-disc album extravaganza. An energetic, pumping song breaks the second album in very well.
Sorry Go 'Round
An unorthodox title and lyrics, to be sure, and the drumbeat and bass are the main instrumental features here, rather than the guitar, which only plays in the chorus. It's a nice head-nodder, and one you might find people air-guitaring to. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this was actually a cover, as it doesn't feel so much like Poets of the Fall as the others of the album, but it's not bad by any standards.
Carnival of Rust
Religious connotations, but don't be dissuaded. This song is an example of Poets of the Fall at their absolute best. In fact it ranks alongside Lift and Late Goodbye. Wonderful lyrics throughout (both in terms of delivery and actual wordage) and acoustic (not to mention the odd sound effects of what I think are people laughing distantly) create a haunting effect, which is accentuated by the rather dark-sounding guitar work. It's slower-paced, but you won't care. This song and really is great, and I'm not sure what else I can say about it.
Locking Up the Sun
A dark bit of synth begins the piece, something PotF haven't done before, and the dark feeling seems to perpetuate in the whole song. Despite this, it actually does feel like theirs and their style, even though it isn't what you'd usually expect them to do. Once more, a fantastic choral number. No, actually it's better than that. One more for your motor, methinks. The main score's great, but the chorus once more pisses all over it, haha.
Gravity
A much more ordinary song. This doesn't seem like much you've not heard elsewhere from other bands in the genre, but it's an all-round decent song. By no means the highlight of the album; you'll be remembering that for Locking Up the Sun and Carnival of Rust much more than this.
King of Fools
Rather interesting and upbeat intro set a tone which quickly disappears through the verse, which is pretty slow on pace, with only the minimal of drumbeat and acoustic to supplement it. It's a quiet song, on the whole, with, once more, most of the energy in the chorus. This doesn't detriment from the verse, which has a nice and easy feel.
Roses
This one feels a lot like Seek You Out throughout. Actually, if the riff had been different, I might've confused them. The chorus is much more in with the rest of the song. You can tell the difference, but it doesn't shine above the song. A quiet and calming song, and one with all round decency. An observation I make at this point is that the songs haven't quite been as good in this album as in Signs of Life. There are a couple of standouts, but the general quality is consistent. Shame it's consistently a little bit lower than Signs of Life.
Desire
That's two easy listening songs in a row now. Quiet acoustic guitars throughout revive the idea that they're an American hoedown band. The song's nice and emotive. If you're into KT Tunstall or Robbie (along with a few of the quieter Chili Peppers songs), you'll probably see this song as a highlight. Heh, I struggle to think of bands which are similar, even though I know there are lots of them out there.
All the Way / 4U
This is a song which starts out as if to say 'oh no, three easy listening songs in a row', with its love lamentation. However, once again, it's a really nice song. The last three songs are great at what they set out to do. I just feel that they did a bit too much of these soft songs in the album. Totally free of the electric overlord until the second half (which is very good), instead solely piano and acoustic. This really is a song of two halves. The first half's lovely, but I think PotF were telepathically knowing we'd all be begging for the return of the guitar by the second half after the past few songs of the album. Don't worry, it gets better
Delicious
The return of the guitar is back in full, this feels a teeny bit like a Hoobastank song, only better. Not only the return of the guitar, but also the return of the great bassline and drumbeat to keep it pumping. Catchy lyrics, too.
Maybe Tomorrow Is a Better Day (Remastered)
This song was released as a single online download in 2004, but was cropped down a bit for the purposes of the album. The original download increased the traffic of the website twentyfold. And rightly so. This is a fantastic song, and there's actually not much between this version and the original. They feel and sound like the same song. And that's a fantastic thing. Great lyrics (delivery and wordage once again), good guitar, once more even greater chorus. Love it, love it.
Dawn
We conclude the album on another slow note, lamenting, but this time with exceptionally well-delivered lyrics, more so than the other three really lamentative ones. It also has a very nice backscore. I found myself much more drawn to this than the other three I marked as the easy listeners.
Overall, this is more great stuff all-round from PotF, however I have to say that Signs of Life, overall, was much better. More memorable tracks, more of those fantastic guitars, and a lot more chances for the singer to show off his talent. He does lamentative really well, don't get me wrong, but he does a dozen times better when he's singing something pacy with a guitar at his back, IMO. This album sorta fills in the blanks left by Signs of Life (the quiet stuff, the dark stuff), but is instantly recognisable and likeable to all Poets fans. Highlights? Well, they've gotta be Carnival of Rust, Locking Up the Sun and Maybe Tomorrow, with Delicious just missing out of the podium.
