Saves the Day attempts to avoid the general trends of its indie genre by combining a flair of emo with the scrappy spirit of punk. However, in its efforts to be one of the brightest stars shining over the respective emo and punk planets, Saves the Day fails to create an individuality apart from the played-out Southern California sounds of Blink 182.
By coupling the same several chords throughout all of Stay What You Are with a lead vocalist who doesn't deviate from an almost annoying, high-pitched tone, Saves the Day never departs from this unoriginal sound. Additionally, by rarely changing the tempo, other than the harder hitting track "See You," the quintet lacks the creativity and unique tones inherent to a really inspiring band. Although "At Your Funeral" experiments with relatively simple harmonic progressions, even these shining moments quickly dull. The lack of variation throughout the 11 tracks--with only a 33-minute play time--makes this half hour aurally painful.
