Review by Joe Harvey
Simply said, Abandon is a Christian rock band from San Antonio, Texas. They have written and recorded a self-titled EP that carries a positive message (clearly understood after viewing the lyrics to the songs). Their songs are good, well written and catchy. Their passion for their music seems high, and their mission to get their message across to their audience is clear. The one major drawback to all of this is that their music is strikingly familiar to some other very popular acts, including U2 and probably the most obvious, the Killers.
The EP begins in high-energy fashion with "Providence". It is a well-structured song with a great chorus, a good choice for the opener. It borrows a lot of musical elements from U2, and the ending is abrupt, but I would say that the strong points outweigh the weak ones.
"Be Alive In Me", sounds more like a traditional contemporary Christian song. It doesn't really present anything new and exciting, and like the first song, it had a sudden ending, but like a few of the other songs on the EP, it has a memorable chorus that will more than likely stick in your head for a while. Not a bad tune.
When the song "Hold On" begins, listeners will most likely think that they accidently put on "When You Were Young" by the Killers. The beginning is so familiar to the Killers hit that it is almost laughable. Oddly enough, though, the song is very good. It has an addicting chorus and is an all around good song, it just unfortunately treads down an already well-worn path.
The next song takes kind of a right turn with "All Because Of You", which sounds like a pop/country song. The whole song is pretty bland, the kind of song one would more than likely skip over.
"Here Waiting" has a modern rock sound and bears another notable and solid sounding chorus.
"Atmosphere" is the final song on the record. The tranquil song is enjoyable to listen to and concludes the 6-song recording on a favorable note.
All-in-all, this is a nice release for the Christian rock genre. Fans of this type of music will probably welcome Abandon with open arms. Those who will judge their sound based upon what they sound similar to will probably easily dismiss the band. When Abandon releases their first full-legnth, I would not at all be surprised to hear them on many of the Christian radio stations. Their music has a very good hook, it just draws back due to the intense similarities to other popular artists.