Local heavy rock four-piece Aerocar Model Four take a few steps forward and a few steps back on The Sweetest Lie. As a cohesive collection of songs, it doesn’t work quite as well as their 2003 debut, Breaking Point, with tracks like “Sunshine” and “Use Me” proving to be uninspired both musically and lyrically (“I want to feel the rain coming down on me/And hope it never ends to wash away mistakes I drown in,” vocalist David Ryan De Vries sings on the former.) That said, most of the songs are excellent (standouts being the melodic “Alienate,” the intense “Buried Alive” and the crushing “Wide Awake”), and the production and packaging are slicker than on their debut—but not too slick. And that’s no lie.

Published in Volume 63, Number 17 of The Uniter (January 22, 2009)