Scott Gross was one of the founding members of From Autumn To Ashes. When he left the band in 2004, he decided to do something else. Something with acoustic music perhaps. What he didn’t have in mind was to get clipped by a car while standing next to a broken down rental car. Yet that is exactly what happened and as a result, the man has spent the last years revalidating. Lullaby The Storm came to life as a way of dealing with the pain and the debut album “3 Lanes Painted Red” pretty much describes everything Gross has been going through for the past two years.
With help from Mari-Elaina (sister of Taking Back Sunday’s Antonio Longo), Jeff Gillson, Greg Odette and with Antonio helping out with a lot of the vocal harmonies and arrangements, the songs on “3 Lanes Painted Red” quickly started taking shape and ended up ranging from indie pop cuts to acoustic meandering intertwined with tasteful piano sounds. The least you can say is that it’s certainly very different from the noise Gross produced in From Autumn To Ashes. Well, it did remind me of that one song they did with One True Thing’s Melanie Willis, “Autumn’s Monologue”. That’s probably as good a reference as I can give you.
With songs like “Kristen With An E” or the title track, it sure shows potential. Yet I’d hardly call “3 Lanes Painted Red” a flawless album. The drums in “Never Take Exit 7” strangely seem to lag and Mari-Elaina’s voice does not lend itself well to more rocking songs like “That Song Seals The Deal”. I think the do-it-yourself- at-home production job has a lot to with that. Anyhoo, they’re already working on a follow-up and I’m gonna wait for that one to make up my mind about Lullaby The Storm.
Score: 6 out of 10
http://www.567records.com
http://www.myspace.com/lullabythestorm
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