The Airborne Toxic Event is a rock band originally from Los Angles and it was one of the top 25 Myspace bands in Rolling Stone Magazine in 2005. This band became famous after its members Mikel Jollett, Daren Taylor, Anna Bulbrook, Noah Harmon,\ and Steven Chen performed at their first show in 2006 and recorded their first single “Does This Mean Were Moving On .” Eventually in 2008 the band was signed to Memo Demo Records. After this, the band released their first self titled album, The Airborne Toxic Event. According to Mikel Jollett the music featured on this album was written during the worst weeks of his life. This might explain why a majority of the songs on this album are so horrible.
The only two songs worth listening to on this album are “Sometime Around Midnight” and “Wishing Well.” “Wishing well” is an excellent song because it tells the story of a girl who feels lost and is desperate to run away from all her problems. One of the best lyrics in this song is the one that describes the girl as a wish that could just turn out well. What human being hasn’t wished that all of the problems in their life would just go away and everything would just turn out well? Any music listener, or person, could most defiantly relate to the lyrics and emotions in this song. Also, the peaceful sound of the singer’s voice and the soft melody of the guitar creates a relaxing atmosphere.
“Sometime Around Midnight” is another song on the album with a great musical beat. The beautiful sound of the violin in the beginning of the song can grab anyone’s attention. It can also cause any music listener to become engrossed in the tale of what happens when a boy is rejected by a girl that he loves in a bar; the story that the Airbone Toxic Event is trying to tell.
Despite the fact that “Sometime Around Midnight” and “Wishing Well” were wonderful songs, the rest of the songs on this album were terrible. For instance, the song “Papillon” ends with the singer frantically screaming “I’m such a Mess” in a way that does not even sound like the singing of someone who deserves a record deal. On the other hand, the song “Gasoline” does not even make sense because it has lyrics that say things like “we were only Seventeen, we were holding back our screams, like we’d torn it from the pages of some lipstick magazine, and you’d turn and say ‘let’s burn ourselves up until we scream, like gasoline.'” It would be interesting to talk to anyone, besides the members of the Airborne Toxic Event, who actually understand what the lyrics of this song mean.
The Airborne Toxic Event is certainly a band that has the potential to make some really great music. The songs “Sometime Around Midnight” and “Wishing Well” are proof of this. But, until this band gets rid of their senseless musical lyrics and invests money in some vocal lessons to ensure that they can sing their songs properly, they will be nothing more than the Airbone Toxic disaster.