Marianas Trench Fix Me. Release Date : October 2, 2006. Label: 604 Records. Rating: Well-developed. (Screw points. To each his own!) Good grief. One of the best voices to come out of Vancouver music in eons (and backed by a few more great voices)... and finally it's been put on a record after... how many years has it been, boys?? Marianas Trench has always been the sort of band that I somewhat uncharacteristically adore. They feel warm and local, you know. And interesting! Holy, are they interesting. They've finally begun to hammer themselves more solidly into a consistent style, despite branchouts to super oldschool sounds and interjections of scathing bitch-whore-bla bla stuff. The sound they chose to largely stick with is a snarly rock with a pop bent... you know, very CFOX friendly. Part of that perturbs me a bit. I mean on the one hand, it guarantees them success, keeps them accessible, and allows them to still be fun... bit of pop, bit of emo, bit of metal, sure why not? But again, I must stress, that voice! I would love to see a bit of leanings towards music that would get this band some fans that would appreciate said voice a bit more than your average CFOX listener. But, rock it shall be, and rock they shall pass on. I admit too I was hoping to hear, likely as a hidden track, one of their charming live-show staples of Billy Joel or Beach Boys songs, but we have to go without that here. What we have instead is a series of original songs of varying vintage, some heavy, some ballady, some with that out-of-place ho-talk (haha) - and all fairly unique. I know I keep going back to it, but it's important. Josh Ramsay's voice just kicks ass! He should have been on that RockStar:Supernova show. He should have taken over the world by now. Squalls that used to barely allow him to make it through a show with his vocal chords intact, high-pitched trills, whispers, creaks. Man... just.. gorgeous and powerful. He's a lucky lad. His words are gutwrenching as well. You can feeeeel his agnst strangling you as it does him. And all this is helped by the uber-accomplished vocals provided by everyone else in the band, and yes, that includes drummer Ian Casselman! That "Shake Tramp" song I find a bit cornball out of the whole collection, but it does have it's charms. I prefer the songs that seem a bit more accomplished rock songs. But the voice the voice the voice. Worth it to listen to just to hear how a solid an emotive rock voice should sound. Take lessons kiddies! Song of choice : Holy, tops goes to the heart-twisting "Say Anything," though "Low" and "Skin And Bones" can't be ignored either. -Andy Scheffler Elsewhere Marianas Trench website Published : January, 2007.