September's Shadow- Hobson's Journey

Hobson's Journey is the debut album of New Jersey-based act September's Shadow. The track listing divides the 18 tracks into two category's: "Hobson's Choice," which contains vocals alongside synth-based instrumentation, and  "The Journey Home from Rexel 4," which features instrumental tracks that, "several of which were originally written for a video game," according to the band's official site.

The band boasts an experimental sound. Denoting this claim inclines the unaware listener to think that perhaps the band will retain the stylings traditional to the synthpop genre while adding notes of its own distinctive flavorings. While it's true that September's Shadow has a sound that is unique, at times even a bit brash, the cumulative result of the work seems excessively campy. While campiness can be a good quality, especially in the gothic subculture, an entire album of it can be too much.

While the instrumental tracks are markedly better than the ones featuring vocals, the album overall tries too hard to stand out and in turn, falls flat. The hooks on each track are very similar and therefore formulaic. There seems to be tremendous effort exerted to seem avant-garde, yet the sound is too far-out, its motive too elusive for the average listener to grasp.