Howie Day: Stop All The World Now : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Twenty-two-year-old singer-songwriter Howie Day's first album was a bit piecemeal, so for his second he started with a concept, and the concept was "Radiohead is a great band!" On Stop All the World Now, the formerly folky elements of Day's music are layered with oddball effects and a thick, emotive fog of production. Aside from the uncanny resemblance of "Come Lay Down" to about half of OK Computer, the singer just exaggerates Thom Yorke's poesy, and his sensitive-wretch vocal style, until Day becomes a beacon of vulnerability, writ way larger. The yearning "Brace Yourself" is dreamy, and the pensive "Collide" is quite quavery, but a good deal of the chorus of "Sunday Morning Song" consists of Day moaning, "Yea-eh-ah-ahhh" -- he's a singer-songwriter for the Backstreet generation. Understand: Stop is not bad. It's tender and well-felt and pretty. But even though Day emotes up and down the record, the music feels indistinct, even sorta impersonal.

PAT BLASHILL
(RS 935, November 13, 2003)