Artist: We Are The In Crowd
Album: Guaranteed to Disagree
Genre: Pop Rock
Label: Hopeless

After far too many months of sweatshirt weather, it seems Summer has officially arrived. While I personally don’t care for the long, hot days, I do love the push in upbeat music that May/June/July brings every season and after such a long winter of self-refferential pop and super chuggy hardcore, it seems sometimes all we need is a good hook. If that’s truly the case, then look no further than Hopeless Records’ latest acquisition, We Are The In Crowd. Hailing from upstate New York, this five piece’s debut EP, Guaranteed to Disagree packs the gigantic hooks of top 40 pop with the dueling vocals of early Taking Back Sunday [except this time its a vocalist Tay Jardine and guitarist Jordan Eckes] and a healthy dose of realist pop rock honesty that few [if any] in this genre ever offer.

We’ve said it plenty of times in the past, but the problem with female fronted bands in the past decade has been the complete lack of originality. Sure, every now and then a group breaks through [read: Evanescence and Paramore], but their success rarely leads to equal success with other bands. What generally happens is an awkward period of labels scooping up similar sounding vocalists in hopes of cashing in on the end of the bandwagon [which often fails miserably]. However, from the very beginning of “Carry Me Home” its obvious that Tay Jardine is completely original with a uniquely angelic voice and the transitional skills of a performer much older. This is, of course, assisted along by the pairing of Jardine and guitarist/secondary vocalist Jordan Eckes whose voice seems destined for the Warped Tour scene. The two spend the majority of the record splitting verses, hooks, and harmonies in a way that never loses its appeal and works to instantaneously set We Are The In Crowd, a group whose only been around a little over a year, completely apart from others in their genre.

As I sat down to write this review, I found myself taking longer and longer to write as its nearly impossible to not hit “repeat” after each and every song on this release. Whether its the rebellious anthem that is “Never Be What You Want” or perhaps the bitter “We Need a Break,” there is something for nearly every emotion a music fan between 15-100 could have and its all done with this pop gleam buried slightly under driving guitars and soaring vocals. In fact, the band pulls off injecting near straight top 40 style songwriting into their record [“For The Win”], but I dare any true music fan to honestly deny how damn catchy it turns out to be.

Perhaps that’s the problem with reviewing this EP, the flaws are minimal and talking about them at length just seems stupid. Yes, there are points where the group’s ultra-pop moments will eat at “true pop rock” fans, but they make up such a tiny percentage of this group’s fan base that this won’t matter.

For those who’ve liked anything this group has released thus far, you’ll fall head over heels in love with Guaranteed to Disagree. It has heart and depth, but also more fun than most the releases we’ve heard this year. The group is perfectly fitted for Warped Tour [which they’re on all Summer] and really have nothing holding them back from taking over the scene but exposure [which will come in time].

Consider this an “All aboard” for the We Are The In Crowd bandwagon because once the world hears what they have to offer, there won’t be any stopping them.

Score: 9.5/10

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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