As a group name for singer/songwriter John Vesely (who plays and sings just about everything here), Secondhand Serenade is oddly appropriate, since Awake sounds on just about every level like a studious approximation of Dashboard Confessional.
Awake isn't necessarily a bad album, but the lack of original inspiration on songs like "Vulnerable" and "Maybe" is pretty startling.
(Obviously, even the song titles are second-hand.) Even the first-time listener should be able to pinpoint exactly at which second Vesely's double-tracked high harmony voice is going to come in, for example, or when the tune will modulate upward for an extra soupçon of yearning and strain.
That said, while Vesely isn't the least bit unique, he does his chosen style well enough, and there's no reason why fans of the sensitive-guy-with-acoustic end of emo wouldn't at least be curious about Awake.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Half AliveJohn Vesely | Secondhand Serenade | Play | 03:43 | 8 MB | 23 MB |
| 2 | BrokenJohn Vesely | Secondhand Serenade | Play | 03:53 | 8 MB | 24 MB |
| 3 | VulnerableJohn Vesely | Secondhand Serenade | Play | 03:22 | 7 MB | 22 MB |
| 4 | Your CallJohn Vesely | Secondhand Serenade | Play | 03:44 | 8 MB | 21 MB |
| 5 | MaybeJohn Vesely | Secondhand Serenade | Play | 03:32 | 8 MB | 22 MB |
| 6 | It's Not OverJohn Vesely | Secondhand Serenade | Play | 03:28 | 7 MB | 22 MB |
| 7 | I Hate This SongJohn Vesely | Secondhand Serenade | Play | 04:38 | 10 MB | 30 MB |
| 8 | AwakeJohn Vesely | Secondhand Serenade | Play | 04:04 | 9 MB | 24 MB |
| 9 | Take Me with YouJohn Vesely | Secondhand Serenade | Play | 04:53 | 11 MB | 32 MB |
| 10 | Let It RollJohn Vesely | Secondhand Serenade | Play | 03:27 | 7 MB | 21 MB |
| 11 | The Last Song EverJohn Vesely | Secondhand Serenade | Play | 04:38 | 10 MB | 28 MB |
| 12 | EndJohn Vesely | Secondhand Serenade | Play | 04:13 | 9 MB | 26 MB |
| 47 mins | 109 MB | |||||
| 47 mins | 301 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rachel Allgood | Audio Engineer, Engineer |
| 2 | Ronnie Day | Additional Personnel, Piano |
| 3 | Tony Espinoza | Mastering |
| 4 | Adam Muñoz | Audio Engineer, Engineer |
| 5 | Secondhand Serenade | Primary Artist |
| 6 | John Vesely | Composer, Member of Attributed Artist, Performer, Various Instruments, Vocals |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |