- Monday
- The Attic
- Carelessness
- The Dumbfound Game
- Pause
- Grab Your Coat
- Bide My Crime
- Get You Out Alive
- Cut Down Sideways
- Confidently Dreaming
- Blurry Eyed
- Unglued
These days, Aaron Sprinkle is best known as a first rate producer in Seattle, helming projects for Kutless, Thousand Foot Krutch, Anberlin, and seemingly everyone else associated with Tooth & Nail. Unfortunately, most aren't familiar with his own music: the excellent melodic grunge band Poor Old Lu, his short-lived post-Lu band Rose Blossom Punch, and three alternative pop solo projects. With nothing since
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However, Sprinkle frustrates with maddeningly abstract songwriting on an album billed as "an honest examination of fear and its logical end in pain or hope." He apparently conveys a changed life reminiscing over childish ways in "The Attic," and "Get You Out Alive" seems to offer comfort in light of everyday struggles. But "The Dumbfound Game" lives up to its name with lyrics like these: "A bother [yes, it's bother,' not brother'] makes a sacrifice/I hope the pulpit sees/But in your debt you can't decide/Another violent seed." Most other tracks read with a similar disjointed writing style. Poetic lyrics are great when they leave things open to interpretation, but not when they're flat out confusing. It's this that keeps Fair's fine debut from matching the excellence of Poor Old Lu and today's other great melodic rock bands.