Release Date: 2001
Genre: Ska/Punk/Acoustic
Tracklisting:
1. This Is A Call To Arms (01:23)
2. Here’s To Life (05:19)
3. Dear Sergio: (03:05)
4. It’s A Wonderful Life (04:56)
5. They Provide The Paint For The Picture Perfect Masterpiece That You Will Paint On The Inside Of Your Eyelids (03:40)
Total Length: 18:22
This Is A Call To Arms is a wonderful intro to this EP and the second track, and so it was kind of disappointing not having it as a complementary to that second track for the Streetlight version. Thankfully, Streetlight does play both live in conjunction. Here’s To Life is simply fantastic, the main melody is incredibly catchy, the lyrics are great, and all the little touches throughout like little unique instruments and the slow part just help the build the song to a better place.
Dear Sergio: was originally done by Catch 22, but this time Tomas of course made it acoustic and added a new verse, and the song is all the better for it. Was a great song before, and is even better now. It’s A Wonderful Life is a bit more emotional and I love it to death. It’s a perfect example of what BOTAR can pull off that Streetlight kind of can’t. The acoustic setting allows for more laid back tracks like this, without having to be counter-weighted with harder punk sections. Sure, the band is essentially playing it one point, but the acoustic setting pulls it back a bit.
They Provide The Paint For The Picture Perfect Masterpiece That You Will Paint On The Inside Of Your Eyelids is a ton of fun and one of the few times I don’t mind absurdly long song titles since it is literally the first line of the song. Just an incredibly fun song, and this EP is simply amazing. It is so good that even if Tomas hadn’t done anything with Streetlight I would still be checking up on him through Wikipedia to see if there are any developments with BOTAR. Do yourself a favor and listen to this.
Final Rating: 9/10
gazingogazongo 