Out of My Hands

Album Review

Green River Ordinance's family-friendly anthems take their cues from the Fray, Matchbox Twenty, and other suburban pop/rock stars, resulting in a sound that's both appealing and completely commonplace. To the band's credit, Out of My Hands is nothing if not a marketable album; the songwriting is singularly focused on replicating the sounds of Top 40 radio, and the record's three producers claim Maroon 5, Sister Hazel, and Gavin DeGraw as previous clients. As a result, every song here sounds geared for radio playback and TV placement, from the nostalgic chimes of "Goodbye L.A." to the finger-plucked arpeggios of "Endlessly."

Josh Jenkins sports a fine voice — not entirely distinguishable from the impassioned croon of Augustana's Dan Layus or the Fray's Isaac Slade, perhaps, but pleasant nevertheless — and his bandmates claim songwriting credits on every track, with only four songs featuring contributions from outside collaborators. While other artists rely on the expertise of Ryan Tedder or the Matrix to sound this slick, Out of My Hands manages to keep the talent in-house, and the band's ability to recycle its influences into familiar, palatable music will likely result in some degree of chart-climbing success. Still, it's hard to view this as anything other than a tribute album to the aforementioned bands, whose style Green River Ordinance easily emulates but rarely transcends.