The Academy Is...

The Academy Is... take that Fallout Boy/Panic at the Disco/etc. sound and infuse it with a little bit of originality. The music rocks in a pretty predictable fashion but it’s still enough to keep your foot tapping. The strongest point of Santi is definitely the vocals — William Beckett’s singing fits the music perfectly and he has that knack for fitting almost too many syllables into a beat. Beckett’s performance seems hopeful and inspired, which is a refreshing change from a lot of what’s out there today. Track two, "LAX to O’Hara,” features some pretty cool church bells during the breakdown and a funky bass line during the verses that make it almost danceable. "Everything We Had” is the album’s acoustic-driven song. The problem with this track is one that pursues the band throughout: it’s not bad but it’s not great either. While the Academy Is... are really good at what they do, what they do has been done, a lot.