Artist: Every Avenue
Album: Picture Perfect
Label: Fearless Records
Purchase: iTunes
Release Date: November 3rd, 2009

Overall: 8.5
Music: 8.0
Lyrics: 8.0
Production: 8.5

A little more than a year ago, Ever Avenue began turning heads with their debut album Shh…Just Go With It. Their standard pop-punk fare was super sweet and sugary with hooks, but couldn’t seem to hold fans over for very long leaving people craving more after a brief sugar high. Now they are back with their second album Picture Perfect, looking to shake things up and turn the volume up higher than ever.

It seems that with time Every Avenue have grown tired of the same old, same old pop punk format and are looking to switch it up this time around. Some songs still have the same charm as their debut (“Mindset”, “Saying Goodbye”), but for the most part they are making their own way in the scene and defining themselves as more than that. Songs like “Girl Like That” with it’s swirling piano, and the heavier influences of a song like the title track”Picture Perfect” give Every Avenue more character and a stronger presence with this album.

The tone of Picture Perfect is much different than their debut as well, where the latter had a more positive tone of better days and summertime, this album dances around the opposite. “Tell Me I’m A Wreck” and “Finish What You Started” both are a little somber with their lyrics, but deliver with catchy hooks and bursting choruses that are becoming the band’s trademark.

Overall it’s a great feeling to listen to a band that sounds as though they have found themselves, and that’s the case with Every Avenue. Picture Perfect is a great sophomore effort that isn’t just another pop punk release, even the cliche ballad “The Story Left Untold” doesn’t feel trite and over done like most others. This band has a winning release that will provide them with enough notoriety that picture perfect won’t be an ironic jab at their lives (given the cover), but rather reality for a band that deserves their time to shine.