There For Tomorrow are a band who could only be glossier if someone painted its members with industrial sealant. Rising out of the Florida music scene in 2003 with a sound nothing like their current particular brand of emotionally-tinged rock, the four-piece have toured tirelessly to get where they are today, and with more hooks than a fisherman's tackle-box (I really wish I was the first person to come up with that, but a cursory Google search shows I'm sadly not), they're destined to only get bigger.

I first discovered TFT in their mainstream infancy with “Pages,” the song so nice they recorded it twice (on the appropriately titled Pages EP and then again on TFT's self-titled EP). At first I jokingly referred to the track as a poor man's “Bury Your Head” (Saosin) due to the sonic similarities, but after a few listens, I came to a startling realization: the tune was catchy as fuck. No wonder it was their flagship song.

And really, the “poor man's” tag was thoughtless. The song is a sonic masterpiece, technical enough to woo over post-hardcore nuts like me but sensible enough to easily court a mainstream audience. Maika Maile has the perfect voice for the part, clean and emotive, while guitarist Christian Climer blends stuttered chords and delicate riffs together with the precision of a musical, um... blender. (Look, not all the analogies can be winners, alright?) Chris Kamrada and Jay Enriquez round out the rhythm section nicely, and while they don't get much of a spotlight in the mix, they're definitely competent musicians who know when to let the two-piece of Maile and Climer shine. If TFT were willing to take a few more chances in their songwriting, who knows what the anchoring duo could pull off?

This brings me nicely to the one critique I have of TFT's debut LP, A Little Faster – it's very safe. No doubt the band was aiming at something along those lines, and really, what's wrong with that? We let so many other genres get by without demanding innovation, why insist all outfits who aren't cobbling together mindless radio filler try to reinvent the wheel? I didn't see anyone slagging All Time Low for Nothing Personal just being an assortment of high-priced hooks (look at the list of producers on that album if you don't get what I'm talking about). Nobody cared because ATL are the indisputable kings of pop-punk right now, and TFT, whatever genre you want to classify them within, are masters of their game.

There is not one song on A Little Faster that lacks of a sense of musical urgency, which makes me wonder if the TFT boys ever have a good day. Whether it's the delicate-turned-soaring self-doubt of “I Can't Decide,” the ridiculously hooky and vindictive “Backbone”, the lovely and reflective "Burn The Night Away" or the confrontational title track, A Little Faster is an album with plenty of anthemic bite. It spans all the musical tones a rock outfit can traverse, hard and soft alike, tied together by the band's now-signature sound and the squeaky-clean production of James Paul Wisner. It's an album that almost anyone can get into, but as a result, a little hard to unabashedly love.

At the end of the day, A Little Faster straddles that uncomfortable fence between brilliant and mundane. There For Tomorrow are a hundred times more creative with their hooks than a Boys Like Girls, a hundred times more accessible than the oft-caustic or abrasive Saosin (especially given that band's recent second LP), and truly excellent live. They rely on little in-studio trickery to get the job done, which is laudable given the state of popular music today, where most singers drown without an auto-tuned life preserver. Hopefully as the band deservedly grows in popularity, they will find something to turn their creative spark into the roaring inferno it has the potential to be. Until then, A Little Faster will do well to keep lovers of immaculate-yet-edgy rock warm at night.