"The real problem is that there is no originality to The Answer" - Matt Liebowitz
On their debut album
Rise, Irish rockers The Answer attempt to infuse their blues-based tunes with passion and energy at just about every turn. The problem, evident in spades on songs like "Never Too Late" and "No Questions Asked," is that this energy isn’t the type that necessarily propels the song or enraptures the listener, but rather makes the listener immediately recognize the influences — Aerosmith, Stevie Ray Vaughan — and, worse, makes he or she want to listen to those bands instead.
The real problem is that there is no originality to The Answer. Every riff, from the start stop crunch of "Sometimes Your Love" to the Led Zeppelin aping "Into The Gutter" can be heard, with little variation, in dozens of songs on your local classic rock station. "Gutter" is actually a very strong track, but only if you can erase from your musical memory the already legendary bands and riffs without which this song would not exist.
In their bombastic guitar solos and arena rock intentions, The Answer follows a very traditional formula. And who can blame them — it worked for so many other blues based hard rockers. But on
Rise, The Answer, in all their fingerboard tapping guitar solo glory, seems to have forgotten the basic premise: Passion and emotion can’t be scripted, and no amount of over the top howling can fully mask the real issue, that The Answer is a band with nothing new to offer.
- Matt Liebowitz
