It’s the First Annual Rebreys, Reality Breached’s new music awards. Today is day 3, it includes Modern Rock, Best Surprise and Best Comeback.
Best Modern Rock Album
–Nominees–
Alter Bridge – The Last Hero
Adelita’s Way – Getaway
Rev Theory – The Revelation (Winner)
Modern Rock may be dead, but that doesn’t mean we can’t highlight the best releases of 2016. Without a new Breaking Benjamin, Seether, or Papa Roach, some lower level artist got the spotlight here and surprisingly Rev Theory emerged with thier first new full length album in 5 years. The Revelation is a breath of fresh air for the genre. As always, Alter Bridge was reliable, but for Adelita’s Way to comeback strong after seemingly running on fumes, is encouraging.
Best Surprise
–Nominees–
Lacey Sturm – Life Screams
Weezer – Weezer (White Album)
The Griswolds – High Times for Low Lives (Winner)
Another toss up category here. Lacey Sturm, surfaced from her self imposed exile from music was not only a huge surprise, but also yielded an inspire solo effort. I seriously never expect to hear from her again. Every self titled Weezer album is great, and the White album continues this trend. The surprising part is them still being able to make good music after nearly eight years of garbage. Which brings me to our winner. The Griswolds’ first album was good but it sounded like a group of outsiders trying to make a indie/pop album. It was clumsy and kinda missed the mark. With High Times for Low Lives, rather fix what was “broken” they just cut loose and made an album that broke all of the arbitrary rules they seemed to be playing by with their debut. HTFLL may not be amazing, but its exciting, surprising, and genre busting…everything for which this category stands.
Best Comeback Album
–Nominees–
Blink 182 – California
Simple Plan – Taking One for the Team
Candlebox – Disappearing in Airports (Winner)
Both the Blink and Simple Plan albums got more spins than I really expected they would but the comeback with the biggest impact was that of Candlebox. Disappearing in Airports is collection of intimate anthems big and small. For a band that is at least 20 years past their heyday, Candlebox seemed surprisingly relevant this year.