MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA > Mean Everything to Nothing

Let the pity party continue as frontman/singer/songwriter Andy Hull, now 22, delivers his sophomore effort of reflective, Jane’s Addiction-styled literate hard rock.

Label: CANVASBACK
[Rating: 2.5]

Let the pity party continue as frontman/singer/songwriter Andy Hull, now 22, delivers his sophomore effort of reflective, Jane’s Addiction-styled literate hard rock. The Atlanta-based quintet’s shoe/navel gazing and Hull’s predominantly downbeat lyrics careen off grandiose, layered instruments that crest and fall like summer tides. Hull’s voice effectively captures the somber mood, but it’s the enormous sound of monstrous guitars that makes this melodramatic, occasionally overblown mid-tempo grunge reverberate with tensile power.