Secondhand Serenade: A Twist in My Story : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

John Vesely, the Northern California singer-songwriter who's better known as Secondhand Serenade, has quickly gone from MySpace phenomenon to prospective Top Ten artist, with TRL airplay and a growing legion of teenage fans. Too bad he comes off like a cornier version of Dashboard Confessional's Chris Carrabba: a tattooed love junkie who wears his heart on his sleeve, his chest and both pant legs. Vesely's second album distills emo to its most heartbroken elements, dredging up huge, pained choruses and very little punk: Mostly, A Twist in My Story sticks to acoustic backing, with some shimmering Coldplay-esque grooves tossed in on tracks like "Fall for You." Vesely has big pipes, but paired with these slickly produced, melodramatic ballads, he sometimes comes off as whiny or ingratiating, and his lovelorn lyrics can take on a certain stalker quality that borders on creepy: On the title track he wails, "I'll give up all that I had just to breathe the same air as you to the day that I die." Yowsa.