Although they’ve already released two LPs, this album represents Quarterfly’s first release on a major label, working with producer Greg Archilla (Buckcherry) and engineer Michael Wagener (Metallica). Thus far the South Carolina quartet has been successful in their hometown and the rest of the southeast and with this album, they were hoping to make a name for themselves in the rest of country. But based on the songs, the chances of that happening are looking pretty unlikely.

It’s not that this group is talentless. Frontman Kip Darby’s has a decent voice and the rest of the band mates are skilled enough to play their instruments properly.The problem is, this album is far from breaking new ground. It’s undoubtedly similar to all the mediocre rock that found its way to the radio in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It’s rock heavily designed to fit a certain structure with lame but radio friendly lyrics. This kind of music wasn’t good 10 years ago and certainly isn’t good today.

They remind me a bit of Fuel and if you’ve heard Fuel, you know why that’s not a good thing. It’s formulaic with every riff and harmonic you’ve heard 100 times before (see “Taken By Surprise” and “Addiction”). The lyrics are typical and so unoriginal it makes the music seem disingenuous (see “The Wrong Thing” and “Between the Lines”). To call this band hard rock as their myspace page claims is ridiculous. It’s not hard. There is no edge and no surprises.

The strongest number is the opener “All Lies.” It shows a small amount of promise with the least cheesy lyrics and the most interesting instrumentals. In this track they certainly sound similar to other rock groups, but not replicas. The title track follows and also has moments of hope with slightly different vocal patterns, but the lyrics begin to fail here. As the album continues, it goes increasingly downhill with each track sounding more familiar than the former.

Conclusion: Please don’t play this on the radio.