We Hope You Win, Radiant
CD Review
29.November.2006



The issue isn’t figuring out Radiant’s intentions. Those are obvious from the surge of volume that opens We Hope You Win--its bass and drums thumping with no sense of subtlety, its dual guitar blasts worshipping at the altar of U2’s The Edge and its chorus stolen from the away messages of forlorn teenage girls. With “That Girl,” the Dallas quartet delivers a pretty clear mission statement: We wanna be famous, dammit.

Rather, the issue is deciding whether that mission has an actual shot. On We Hope You Win, the production’s huge, the hooks are memorable and the musicianship is nothing short of stellar, so it’s hard to judge the album without asking whether it could make these guys the next overhyped Coldplay...or the next underdelivering Pete Yorn. Jumping to that question is in itself a compliment, of course, as the singles on this disc are easily on par with the stuff that passes for 30-something-friendly hits these days; give this disc to your average JACK-FM or adult-contempo fan and they’ll be blown away by how local the disc is.

Is that a bad thing? For anyone whose record collections are ripe with the piano pop Radiant is enamored with, possibly; a decent portion of the album washes by in an “eh, I’ve heard this before” way, from the Toad the Wet Sprocket-style balladry of “Oceans” to the Coldplay-style piano-pop of the title track to even the Third Eye Blind-ery of “Got You Where I Want You,” a song so formulaic that the band could probably be sued if someone analyzed it enough.

There’s definitely a difference between building from your influences and simply relying on them; fortunately, Radiant proves both sides of that coin with some incredible moments as well. “Magician” has every element a pop band could want in a national hit, from a pulsing bass intro to an interesting take on the usual “na-na-na” anchored in a jumble of minor key piano plunks to a shout-along take on relationship trickery: “Was it just an illusion?”

The crucial song on We Hope You Win is buried 38 minutes in. “She’s Alright With Me” is probably the best showcase for lead singer Levi Smith, whose voice needs no trickery or straining to reveal intensity and sensitivity in its just-deep-enough register. “The rolling smoke/from the shotgun became my own and forever it’s aimed at me,” he starts as pedal-loaded guitars boil beneath thumping tom drums before the unquestionably catchy chorus takes flight--drums smash with the cry of every syllable of “She’s-Al-Right-With-Me” and the guitar lines harmonize with the vocals in stellar fashion.

Though it’s impossible to predict how this band’s sound would translate to the ever-changing mainstream, the aforementioned songs definitely stand out from the rest of the national fray, and because of the band’s ability to stand out and twist the usual pop formula, Radiant can proudly call We Hope You Win a victory. 


Make up your own mind: Purchase the album at Good Records (iTunes version coming soon) or sample songs at Radiant's MySpace page.