Times change. The record label that once gave us Hatebreed, Warzone, Snapcase, Integrity, Blood for Blood has been very active on the emo and punk rock front the last few years. For some a questionable decision. Now, some of the bands mentioned are still on Victory, others have quit or changed labels. Victory however is still one of the prominent labels in hardcore, if only for its history. It’s label member Taking Back Sunday who introduced The Reunion Show to Victory Records and with success; with their debut album ‘Kill Your Television’ as a direct result. Before you even buy the album or listen to it, you should really forget all the aforementioned bands. The Reunion Show has little or nothing to do with hardcore or emo but all the more with pop, college rock and punk rock. Just take two ounces of Weezer, one ounce of Foo Fighters, a dash of Elvis Costello, a tea spoon The Rentals and two grams of The Get Up Kids.

11 melodic, well crafted tracks neatly decorated with the very recognisable sound of a Moog organ (you’ll either love it or hate it). Although all of the tracks are catchy, most of them do not have that instant sing along quality that we know from Weezer. If the hooks on ‘Kill Your Television’ were just a little stronger there might be chart success in the making here. Songs like ‘Television’, ‘New Rock Revolution’ and ‘Stuck On You’ deal with every day topics, have the necessary amount of guitar punch – production is crisp clean - and are very well sung by lead vocalist Mark Thomas. However, it lacks the magic; that strange something that makes the hair on your arms rise and makes you say ‘damn this is good’. In a nutshell; there isn’t really that much to criticize here. Nice songs, nice album, nice artwork, nice job.