Album Review :
Canopy Red - Wake Up
By Cimarron Hatch in Reviews | Comments closed
Artist: Canopy Red
Title: Wake Up
Label: None
Release Date: 6/5/12
Reviewer: Cimarron Hatch
Buy The Album: iTunes / CDBaby
Tracklisting:
- Wasting Time
- Disguise
- Forever
- Sink or Swim
- Paralyzed
- Wake Up
- Won’t Let Go
- If You’re Not With Me
- Running After You
- What I’m Waiting For
Canopy Red is a contemporary Christian band hailing from Tallahassee, Florida. Their main goal is to minister to the hearts of this generation through their music. Wake Up is their first full-length album, and it was produced by Dove Award winning producer Rusty Varenkamp (Michael W. Smith, Sanctus Real, Tenth Avenue North). The members of Canopy Red are Forrest Krazit on vocals and piano, Joshua Schmidt on guitar and background vocals, and Ryan Harvell on percussion and spacebar.
“Wasting Time” opens the album with some interesting guitar, but I felt like the song is out of place here and would have fit better in the middle of the album. The vocals are good, but on the chorus they sound too boy-bandish. “Disguise,” about a quest to live authentically, has some nice piano in it, but it sounds very tinny and could have been computer generated—which is not authentic. “Forever” has a nice melody in the chorus that could easily get stuck in your head. Every part of this song, including the vocals, is incredibly similar to Starfield’s sound. It’s odd to hear a song sound like Starfield because they have such a unique style. A quite bland song called “Sink or Swim” comes next. A few bells in the background dress it up a bit, but it’s otherwise really common sounding.
“Paralyzed” kicks the album up a notch with some fast-paced drums that sound exactly like those of the A-ha classic “Take On Me.” The lyrics of the song talk about how without God we are just paralyzed and not actually living. “Wake Up,” the title track, is also upbeat, but the lyrics aren’t anything special and the whole song becomes too monotonous. “Won’t Let Go” is another mediocre song, but some parts of it reminded me of Keane in their Hopes and Fears era. For the next song, “If You’re Not With Me,” Canopy Red turned into Tenth Avenue North, voice and all. The instrumentation on this song is pretty good, but the electronic drum is especially noticeable and odd. The last two songs, “Running After You” and “What I’m waiting For,” are just typical CCM style songs, though the latter has some nice finger-picked guitar.
Overall: While Canopy Red may be enjoyed by many listeners, I can’t personally see their appeal. Most of the songs sound outdated to me—like they are from around 2005. Even CCM music has moved forward since that time. But I would say my biggest problem with this album is that it apparently uses all electronic drums. Electronic drums don’t sound professional and they should never be used. Basically, on the bright side, this band has some talent that they could pull together and come back with a great album. But for now, this album has completely fallen short of that mark.