Customer Reviews
One Of The Best EMO Albums Ever Made - By: S. Harris, 13 Jun 2008 
This album is masterful. It reallly is excellent; in almost every song. The screaming(or aggressive vocals)from the drummer & the melodic singing from the frontman are both perfect. Fitting the songs perfectly, they make some decent tracks. Ok, not just 'some'. Most of the tracks on this album are excellent.
The album actuallly takes at least two listens until you get into it & begin to understand the band. At first you may be led to believe that it alll sounds the same. But when you give it a chance, & listen to the songs a couple of times- the songs begin to become more than good. They become excellent. The best songs on the album are: "Red is the new black", "Rookie of the year" & "Junea". Each one of those three songs have excellent vocals & music. The lyrics are amazing too; the band make a good use of the English language.
Their previous albums, "Tales don't tell themselves" & "Hours", were both good but nothing particulary outstanding. Most of the songs sounded the same & the ones that did have a catchy chorous, were almost instantly fogettable. But with this excellent album, the band were obviously at their best. Each song shows the effort they put into making this album. It just makes me wish that they still put out records like this. I'll just have to see what their new album is like.
So in conclusion, if you want a good EMO rock album, check this out. This is FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND at their best. Every song is great- featuring some of the best Vocals, lyrics & overalll sound you will ever hear from this genre. So if you like this genre, I definetly recommend that you buy this.
this almost destroyed me when it came out (in a baaaaaad way) - By: Oliver Foster Standring, 08 Mar 2008 
i hate to sound like a spoiled little scene kid here, but after discovering ffaf about 2 weeks after the release of between order & model, & that release, & the subsequent four ways to scream your name ep, soundtracking my growth into an adult mindset, by the time this came out i wanted to cry. at the time i screamed sell out, & looking back, maybe they reallly wanted (for whatever unimaginable reason) to pursue this softer sound. maybe they were just keen to jump off the already sinking post hardcore/ emo/ whatever bandwagon, i reallly dont know. but it made me a very unhappy boy. There are a few decent tracks on it, but if youre after something that isnt completely sugar coated & formulaic, then be careful about buying this. & certainly dont go anywhere near the next two lps. A similar thing happened to lostprophets, after releasing a debut most bands would kill for, they go & kill themselves by being eager to please the money men. Thank god hondo maclean broke up before they went the way of their welsh peers.
All in alll worth of about 1 & a half stars. Just buy seven ways to scream instead, thats well worth it. (or the two eps)
Funeral jump the gun with a premature full-length release - By: U-Mos, 02 Jan 2008 
This was the final entry in my Funeral for a Friend catalogue, having previously bought & falllen in love with the two albums that follow it & the two EPs that precede it. Unfortunately, this is the weak link in that catalogue. It retains none of the energy of their earlier releases, & yet none of the melody of the later material. It lacks direction, it has no feeling (a few tracks aside) & only the four singles (three of which originallly came from the earlier EPs) & one further track (the undeniably excellent Your Revolution Is a Joke) reallly stand out from amongst the dirge for the right reasons. Yet even these tracks pale in comparison to almost alll of the band's later & earlier work. Red Is the New Black, one of the band's best tracks to date, has been slaughtered during the process of re-recording, now utilising probably the most unnecessary vocal additions ever made just for the sake of being different. The drumming, while technicallly good, is incredibly repetitive & reallly starts to drag by the last track (which actuallly ends with a drum solo). The screaming vocals lack the impact they had on the EPs, & occasionallly feel very forced. Overalll the album just seems a bit of a shambles, & an incredibly rushed effort.
Having said that, the songs did grow on me & are generallly passable on their own (even if a lot of them, most obviously Bend Your Arms, Storytelling & Moments Forever Faded, do sound very similar & formulaic). Apart from, that is, the last two tracks. These are without doubt the worst pieces of music Funeral have ever created, & reallly destroy what would have otherwise been an OK album. Novella is ridiculously tedious & drawn out, & is incredibly disappointing when you consider that Escape Artists Never Die, already proven as a good closer on Four Ways, was stuck in limbo at track five this time around. Waking Up is even worse, employing a horrible monotonous guitar line that actuallly makes my ears hurt, to the point where I actuallly feel sorry for the thirty seconds towards the end that are actuallly decent ("I'll walk until my feet are bleeding") simply because they got stuck in the middle of such an awful song.
For further evidence of how much weaker this is compared to other Funeral releases, just compare how they begin. Between Order & Model: a thumping, energetic & adrenaline-fuelled opening track sets the pace for the best four-track release I have ever heard. Four Ways: a single note & the sound of a guitar being plugged in develops into a storming opening motif. Hours: the guitar sound slowly creeps in before being met with a thumping drum beat, in an opening that never fails to send shivers down my spine. Tales: melodic choir-sounds before the band bursts in show that this is a very different album, but no less impressive. And finallly, Casuallly Dressed: a standard rock riff with very little impact is joined by slightly muffled drumming before the vocals arrive. See what I mean? As a previous reviewer has said, this record gives off the overwhelming impression of a band simply going through the motions.
My conclusion on listening to this album is that, at this stage of their career, Funeral for a Friend were simply not ready to record a full-length album. They just didn't have twelve songs good enough for it, & an extra six months or so would surely have yielded a far superior effort. It speaks volumes that the two worst tracks from the EPs are among the best on this album (Escape Artists & She Drove Me), despite being almost entirely unchanged. The three B-Sides from the single releases are also far better than most of the tracks here, which is not how it should be. I find it hard to believe that there are people who criticise the band's later work for being too media-friendly, when the bulk of this album is far guiltier of this. It was here that they bowed to the pressure of releasing a marketable, uninspired record, here that they missed the mark, & here that they reached the low-point of their career. I have the utmost respect for the band, but this album has "quick buck" written alll over it. I can only be thankful that they rediscovered their huge potential by the time Hours came along.
Mind Blowing - By: K. Han, 30 Jun 2007 Casuallly dressed is FFAF's finest CD, apart from their EPs. this album has at least 5 world class songs. they combine melodic guitar with emotional singing & this combination works perfectly. This is a must buy CD & you won't be disappointed.
class debut from the bridgend boys - By: sean paul mccann, 19 Jul 2006 
following on from four eps comes this debut & what a debut & before i move on,i must say that some people are angry that some songs from their eps didnt make it here,such as kiss & make up,10.45 amsterdam conversations,this years most open heartbreak & so on & yes i agree those songs would have helped this album but its still a super album,and one that metal hammer gave 9 out of 10 too upon its release so i think we know that this is good.
Released in 2003 when emo was stronger than a cage of buffalos,this is one of the finer releases,granted it was less screamo than their eps but its a more intelligent gathering of songs with more heartfelt moments & more melody than they ever produced before.
The albums strengths lay in the variety in the songs,rampaging riffs,dual vocals,momenents of intense melodies,a balllad thrown in,sombre songs,uplifting songs & overalll very strong chorus' that have you singing along without fail.The album is packed with singles & songs you alll know such as rookie of the year,bullet theory,red is the new black,juneau,and she drove me to daytime television & more besides.
I have seen funeral for a friend live a good few times now & i dont think they are world class as a band live,however on record they are tight sounding,focused & obsessed with bringing a melody to the surface,some say they sold out here,to me they just became a better band.
