Roy - Big City Sin and Small Town Redemption

With the four members of Roy also serving time in Botch, These Arms Are Snakes, and Harkonen, logic would assume that Roy’s debut full-length entitled Big City Sin and Small Town Redemption would be a tour de force in post-hardcore aggression. But logic would be wrong. With Big City Sin, Roy fine tunes catchy melodies, warm harmonies, jangling guitars, and mid tempo country-tinged sounds into an album rife with edgy, pure breed pop songs. They have accompanied the Weakerthans on a trek across the US, and the fit of kindred spirits is almost perfect. The songs comprising Big City Sin and Small Town Redemption are fine, as they do showcase Roy’s adept ability of crafting catchy pop songs, but the album is simply too complacent and mediocre to rise Roy’s status past being a mere side project. [www.fueledbyramen.com]