To be perfectly honest I grew up on the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Warren Zevon, and Tom Petty, so basically I'm firmly ensconsed in the Rock camp, but I'm always willing to give other bands a chance.

I kinda wish I didn't give this band one.

The songs are catchy, certainly, in the same way that 'The Song That Never Ends' is. You will soon wish to drive a stake through your skull. The band members are not bad musicians, but they are solidly average. The singer, well he can hit higher notes than I can, which would be impressive if he didn't sound so much like a prepubescent boy.

CIWWAF is clearly attempting to follow in the footsteps of Fall Out Boy or Panic! At The Disco but their stride falls short.

My 13-year-old daughter and I went on a road trip. We took one CD -- "Rotation" by Cute is What We Aim For. She was going to convince me why this band was great. We had quilts and snacks and drove through the beautiful mountains near Tahoe and I became a fan. We listened to each song numerous times and my daughter would tell me what she thought they meant and I would relate what I thought they meant -- each from our own experiences. We had the best time, dancing around in the car, spending some quality time and I learned a lot about her from how she interpreted the songs. She was able to tell where they were making fun of themselves and where they were giving a message. My kid is smarter than I gave her credit for. I even caught myself singing "Practice Makes Perfect" at my job the next day and everyone was like, "What's that?" and then they listened. And then they liked it! I'm too old to say Shaant is HOT, but I'm gonna say it anyway. Shaant, you're HOT! They all seem like really cool guys and I'm excited to say I'm taking my daughter and her friends to go see them at the Boardwalk in Orangevale, California. Keep up the good work GUYS!!!

I took my 13-year-old daughter to a Fall Out Boy show and Cute is What We Aim for was one of the opening bands. They sounded like many other bands and nothing was out of the ordinary about them (except for that lead singer Shaant Hacikyan is one of the hottest of the latest crop of hotties under 30).

But staring at a good-looking guy flinging his hair around gets old after 10 minutes no matter how gorgeous he is.... Then they did Curse of Curves and the crowd went wild so I made a note to myself to check out the song. I promptly much forgot about them after the show (Fall Out Boy blew all four opening acts off the stage) but my daughter played Curse of Curves a few times and the song kept getting stuck in my head so I put it on my MP3 player and really enjoyed it.

I delved a little further and listened to the rest of the CD and it's not bad. The #1 problem is that the songs tend to get stuck in my head and even though **SOME** of the lyrics are catchy and witty, they're too often repeated a ridiculous number of times (the main lyrics of the song Risqué are repeated no less than EIGHT times in under four minutes) and they're all pretty much "shallow as a shower" (to steal a line from "Curse of Curves").

I've read several online reviews where people deem Hacikyan a "lyrical genius" and that's a very sad statement regarding today's youth--especially considering that when Led Zeppelin released their first recording which contained "Good Times Bad Times", "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", "Dazed And Confused", and "Communication Breakdown" and when The Who wrote and recorded their first album that had "My Generation" and "The Kids Are Alright" on it, they were the same ages as these guys.

I want to like CD more and this band has good potential but the CD falls short of what they can probably do. I can only listen to about half of it before I have to turn it off to hear something more substantial--even with the catchy hooks and cute lyrics.

Cute Is What We Aim For is yet another band trying to join the ranks of the pop punk elite with such artists as Fall Out Boy and Good Charlotte. But the problem with their album The Same Old Blood Rush with a New Touch (aside from the fact that it might take a few minutes to say the band's name and the title of the album) is that it could use a touch of talent.

Okay, maybe that's not entirely fair, but lead vocalist Shaant Hacikyan (good luck trying to pronounce that) and the rest of the band really don't have a whole lot to say. Most of the songs make no sense at all, like "I Put the `Metro' In `Metronome'", "There's a Class for This" or even the smooth "Lyrical Lies". "Sweat the Battle Before the Battle Sweats You" is another mistake (especially the way Shaant says "prove" before every chorus), and the album's closer, "Teasing to Please", has very disorganized production during the hook. Even the obligatory song with a message, "The Fourth Drink Instinct" (which deals with date rape), fails.

I don't know exactly what the band is aiming for, but what they really need to do is get their skills sharpened in a hurry because right now, the only rush you'll get is hurrying over to the STOP/EJECT button when this album is playing.

Anthony Rupert

i love this CD. but you cant really listen to the songs too much because they get old fast.