Let me just start by saying that I absolutely loved every second of 10 Years' debut album, "The Autumn Effect." Although they came off as an obvious Tool/Perfect Circle wanna-be, they pulled it off nicely. Their ability to write creative hooks with beautiful melodies, and also rock out here and there, made them one of my favorite new bands.After a long wait, we finally have the band's sophomore album, "Division." I wasn't really sure what direction the band would go in order to step up their game, especially since "Autumn Effect" sounded more like a 2nd or 3rd album anyway. For the most part, it seems the band has maintained their previous style, but with a few twists here and there. Songs like "Beautiful," "11:00am," "Russian Roulette," and "Picture Perfect" easily sound like they could've been on the first album. Then there are songs that are similar, but take on a more typical radio rock sound like "Actions & Motives" and "Just Can't Win." Then we have a couple songs that sound completely different like "Focus" and "Proud Of You," which are definitely more on the experimental side. On my first 2 listens, I enjoyed the album, but felt that it failed to achieve the same magic as The Autumn Effect. I kinda felt like they had taken a step towards sounding like everyone else in their genre. But after a couple more listens, you begin to really love all the songs. "Actions & Motives" is a good example, I thought it was mediocre at first but now I love it. This has become one of my favorite albums of 2008, but I still don't think it's quite as good as The Autumn Effect. But if you really loved that album, then I think you'll enjoy this one to.
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