"A Home That You Left To Find Your Own"

The Canvas Waiting
“In Search of Beginnings” EP Review (2.5/5)

The Canvas Waiting has been playing music together since 2003. Using emotional lyrics with their echoed vocals, they’ve added themselves to the list of late 90s emo sounds like Further Seems Forever. The In Search of Beginnings EP is their debut record. This EP is also available on a limited edition disc with four extra acoustic tracks. The extra tracks are not even able to push this record into any new territory. It seems as if everything on record was done once before.

The most noticeable item on this album is the melodic guitars, everything else sort of fades into the background. “Carousel Ride” and “These Familiar Arms” are filled with those loopy guitars and head arm swaying pianos. Understand, every track sounds familiar and rehashed by some other rock band with a bleeding heart. The best track off this disc is “These Familiar Arms.” There are more musical transitions in that one song than on the whole record.

“Opener” sounds like an Armor For Sleep song with The Juliana Theory vocals. It’s the second best track off this EP. The lyrics are mediocre but the one liners scattered throughout this record can compete with the type of phrases Taking Back Sunday uses. They make sure to incorporate the slow song titled, “In Search of Beginnings.” On this song, the lyrics, “some days are hard, others are harder” and “looking into your eyes make me look smaller.” There is no originality in those words whatsoever. The Canvas Waiting manages to give off good words. On that same song, they sing, “Everywhere that you go there’s a home that you left to find your own.” It shows that even though they can destroy a song with their words, they can give it some sort of recognition with those one liners.

The acoustic demos after the last song “Sincerely Yours” makes for a break in the album. Violins fill the tracks in a southern country fashion. Alongside the acoustic guitar, it sounds good. On these newly added songs, the vocals give some similarities to an amateur The Early November. These tracks do continue the poor lyrical trend without falter. By the end of the last acoustic track (if you make it that far), you’ll get so full of this EP that you won’t want to hear it again.

This Tokyo Rose, The Juliana Theory blend is no match for the better music in the world. With all those one liners, they should either make one really good song. Or sell them to other restless emo bands looking to fill the perfect song with the perfect line. The Canvas Waiting seems to waste their talent with their slushy writing ability and unoriginal sound. The most experienced cry babies wouldn’t tolerate this record. It would be better to buy a song or two off I-tunes.