Though they reside on Vagrant and have matured at a rate and in a manner similar to
the Get Up Kids, there's something...East Coast about
Hot Rod Circuit that cordons them off from the dreaded emo-pop tag. While
Reality's Coming Through has its share of pleading choruses and heartstring-tug power-chord changes (and genre spokesman Chris Carrabba guests on the rousing "Unfaithful"), this effort mostly suggests the resigned, flinty rock of
Buffalo Tom, or vaguely the later
Barlow/
Loewenstein axis of
Sebadoh. "Fear the Sound"'s wrangled guitars and struggling half-time, "Cheap Trick"'s clever musical references, the achy, pedal steel-tinged "Best You Ever Knew" -- these songs don't deserve to be corralled behind the invisible fence of a meaningless genre. The presence of old-hand East Coast producer Tim O'Heir might have something to do with the blue-gray vibe of
Reality's Coming Through, but there's that title, too, which suggests
Hot Rod Circuit themselves know this album is the one. It might be the
Let Me Come Over of this decade. ~ Johnny Loftus