By Robert Canfield
Barometer Staff Writer

Common Rotation
The Big Fear Independent Grade: B+

If you're looking for some new music to help keep your new school year moving, you should consider pop rock. One cool band to check out is Common Rotation. The band's new album The Big Fear is a collection of songs that each feel like a little shot of adrenaline.

The album starts off with two of its biggest highlights, "Indie Rockin'," and "PostModern." The former is an electrified song that is more straightforward rock with some added effects. The latter starts off like a Phish song, and the vocals stay that way throughout, while the music becomes a tad more soft rock.

Many of the songs on the album (and the album itself) have a great sense humor behind them. The inside of the cover insert contains one gigantic, rambling passage that starts out with "DON'T be scared" and comes to a conclusion with "all sales are final."

"Sit Down," is one of the songs following the humorous motif. It is a simple song about sitting down before falling. The vocals come so fast it's almost like a rap, but without screaming and with much more harmony. It sounds like each of the four members of the band are singing the same lines, just not together. Common Rotation is quite good at the manipulation of their vocals.

Lead singer Eric Kufs is especially good at wordplay. In "Prime Time," there is a fast tempo for the chorus and a slower one in the verses, but Kufs takes the vocals at a different speed on every verse, sometimes changing it up part way through.

The album closes with a slow acoustic song, "Fortunate." It is a song about love and happiness with another person. The song is carried more by the talent of Kufs' vocals than the instruments backing him. Really it is a five minute song asking "how could I leave you?"

The Big Fear by Common Rotation isn't full of new ideas or surprises, just some good solid pop-rock. It's a great listen for reading, studying, or just chilling.

Robin Canfield is a Diversions writer for The Daily Barometer. He can be reached at canfielr@onid.orst.edu.