Starting off with "Believe," they get you to do just that. While the guitar runs through the intro, the bass and drums' light work help keep the song soft and gentle. But with Sarah's vocals, the song also has a little power too it. Although her voice is also soft and sweet, it keeps enough pain and joy present to make the words seem as if they are coming from experiences...which they are. The song soon picks up and busts into a power-pop style that made "Not An Addict" such a radio hit. Lined with hooks, powerful vocals, and a strong rhythm section, "Believe" gets this album going. Their first single, "Everything For Free," starts off very soft for thirty seconds, but with a blink of the eye they quickly dive into some more power-pop, crunchy guitars and all. Once again, the hooks are plentiful. The guitar works with the vocals to help accent words and slips a hook in when a phrase really needs to be driven home, while the rhythm section keeps your feet tappin' and the song solid. As a band, they work nicely together and seem to have a musical understanding of each other. "Butterflies Instead" showcases the bands lyrical ability, as well as their ability to tell a story and either directly or in-directly relate it to themselves. A song about a girl who is in the middle of her parents feuds, she crawls into her room and just locks out the world, taking comfort in her stuffed animals and pets. With lines like "Daddy says: 'I love you girl, it's not your fault your mom and me don't get along.' I know he's lying, I know there's no such thing as inexplicable" and "Everything's all right, stuffed animals are always right," you get a deep feel for what this girl is going through, and you can't help but want to shed a tear for her. Then as you think about it more, you come to think of the times in your life when things have been troubling, and then you want to just go cuddle up with your favorite pet or stuffed animal and want them to tell you everything's going to be OK. That's the beauty of this song, as well as many of their other ones, it tells a direct story, but leaves the door open for you to gain different emotions from it. The title track to this CD is a real fired up number. Intense and full of power, it has to be one of their toughest numbers. The guitar turns everything up a notch and soars through the song with muscle, while the bass and drums both hammer away and keep the song thick. But amongst all the hard-hitting beats, they still sprinkle in some pop hooks and a melodic edge. Which is always nice. Although they pull this number off nicely, they are just not a head-on type of band. Against their other numbers this song loses out due to its lack of hooks (compared with other tracks), but it still has the ability to stand on its own. Ending with "Winners," they close out with a very soft number. Not as energetic or powerful as some of the other tracks on this disc, they still keep the lyrics deep, which helps propel the song past the mediocre mark.

K's Choice takes music and covers every aspect of it. From vocals, melodies, to lyrics, they've covered all of them. While some bands concentrate on the music too much, K's Choice has a perfect blend of all the aspects that make a song good. This album is deep, catchy, and enjoyable. I'll give it an A.

K's Choice: Almost Happy

K-Ci & JoJo: Love Always

[Issue Eleven // August 1998]