Noise Ratchet - Till We Have Faces (2002)

A somewhat ironic title given the more indistinguishable elements of their emo/post-grunge/indie rock, Noise Ratchet still emerges as one of the better entries into an already flooded genre. With all the distorted crunch, emotive vocals, guitar crescendos, and dramatic climaxes that could be expected of bands in the Jimmy Eat World/Sunny Day Real Estate camp, the sounds arrived at here are highly competent, if somewhat by-the-numbers. With 12 tracks providing little doubt that they've done their homework and then some, a nice mix of tempos and textures help to obscure the fact that there are really no surprises to be found and there is little reason to recommend them over any number of their contemporaries. Still, it's ultimately hard to blame them for homogeny of the genre, and their set is strong enough to place them near the top of the list of their like-minded ilk.