Cute Is What We Aim For is back this summer with their new album Rotation. Be ready for new sounds and new rhythms with that same Cute-Is-What-We-Aim-For feel. If there could be one thing said about this album, it would be the message of change. After a couple hard years, the band is back and more mature, both in their music and in life.

“This [album has] such a cohesive message of change: external change, internal change, global change, political change, social change—everything on this record has a message,” said Shaant Hacikyan, the lead vocalist.

The CD is a perfect dance-around-in-your-underwear album (don’t deny it—we all do that!). You want to be moving the whole time you’re listening, or at least doing a little head-banging. The album brings new arrangements, instrumentation and a feeling of unity—three things that don’t go unnoticed as you jam out to “Miss Sobriety” or slow dance to “Time.” With the addition of Dave Melillo, the new bassist, Cute Is What We Aim For has finally come together in their artistic direction and the album is better for it.

“We’re not seventeen anymore. There’s so much to be said about these past few years of being in a pressure cooker and learning what the real world is like,” said Shaant. This time around, the band has made a record for themselves without taking outside trends or influences into consideration. “I think this record is going to do such incredible things and launch us to another level.”

Rotation is in rotation starting June 24.

—Lauren Linhard

6/24/2008 10:36:00 AM