3 out of 5

Label: Law of Inertia

Produced by: Don Fury

Identity Crisis is the main thing that hampers Thisyearmodel, an eager hardcore rock group that hints at some encouraging maturity on a couple of tracks of this EP, but otherwise soars a bit too close to probable influences, including Glassjaw, whose Daryl Palumbo makes an almost indiscernible appearance.

The disc opens with Pornstar Formula, blending some punk and hardcore elements for a Vaux-like rumble that impresses in both its momentum and restraint, Fury giving production due to a solid bass and the group offering up just enough verse-chorus-verse and shouts to give the song structure without trailing on for too long.  The same isn’t true of the five minute followup The Impossible, which goes through a couple of sections, neither very strong, and lacks the punch that gave the first track some identity.  Goodnight Gorgeous follows suit, the disc’s “sad song,” although is a bit tighter constructively.  The following two tracks – Leopard Prints & Studded Belts and Too Much Macintosh – get us back to shorter runtimes, but the chick-focused lyrics start to wear a bit thin here, exposing the band’s youth.  To be fair, the lyrics aim for higher than rhyming, and don’t fall back (mostly) on simple swearing to make a point, there’s just not much of a new story here.  And it should be noted that all of these tracks are performed professionally, they just sound like a group that got together because they wanted to sound like some other groups.  Concluding with You Never Get a Second Chance To Make a First Impression, we get to once again hear how this could grow into something more, though, the group setting aside some of the hardcore for more of a rock approach.  It has a bit of a late 90s feel, oddly, but as with the opener, it’s the restraint on the track that sells it.

I don’t know if these dudes went on to other bands, or if this was a one and done.  It’s not a bad dose of hardcore-tinged rock, a notch above the norm, but it’s a formative release that could probably be better appreciated in retrospect than as a representation.