By: Carlo J. Gonzalez

The past few years have seen an emergence of boy bands, one being the mega popular One Direction, and the industry has become over saturated with them. To say the least, I did not have high expectations as a first time listener.

However, after listening to the first song on Let the Road, I honestly believed this entire album would be like every other boy band album. A group of teenage kids singing about broken hearts or vaguely describing a pretty girl. However, to my surprise, I discovered that there is a good chunk of variety in this album. For example, the song ”Hotel Ceiling” has a slower tempo but is very compact with instruments whereas the hit, “Wait on Me” is extremely upbeat and jubilant.

I feel the four singles, “Me and My Broken Heart,” “Wait on Me,” “Hotel Ceiling,” and “We All Want the Same Thing” are the highlights of the album. The first two singles are especially great and their popularity and critical praise agrees. The last two singles are also gems as they are bit different in both tempo and direction, which makes them personal favorites.

Overall, the entire track list was extremely surprising to me. Moreover, Let the Road just gives its listeners more of what is already good in the genre. This is what more artists and bands need to realize is that innovation is fantastic yet, there is nothing wrong with sticking to your guns and producing quality content that you have always been producing.

Rixton has had previous successes but it seems transparent that this group brings a new flavor to a stale genre. I honestly wish the best for this group’s musical career as well as any future endeavors that any of them may pursue.