"I've got ideas that could save the planet!", a bold statement that opens both the track 'Modest Manifesto', and the album, titled The End Of An Error. Clearly those ideas aren't original ones, because the first three minutes of music contained on this album is both horribly bland and blatantly stolen from, well, any pop-punk band from the last 10 years. Indeed, 'Modest Manifesto' is an unsubtle lyrical attack on the "critics" who slate Houston Calls for the music they write, and a call to arms for all their fans. But let me, as a "critic", put one point back your way, Houston Calls. Writing about how you understand your music isn't "breaking all new ground" may well make you a slightly intelligent band and not a bunch of pretentious arseholes, but it still can't stop you from being really fucking boring. Houston Calls also have a good line in shit metaphors too. "I'm in a hole with four friendly pigeons, we'll fly away from the public's opinions". Since when was a pigeon a viable point of reference? It just makes you sound like you're dull, dirty and quite unwelcome in any situation.Actually, that is quite an apt metaphor.Right, pop-punk was great. I'm not a "hater", I know that everyone's been through that phase at least once in their lives. Back in the days of Blink-182, and further back to the old Drive-Thru bands, they were all ace...even the 'emo-lite' bands who were basically pop-punk anyway were tolerable at times. But please! Flogging a dead horse is a massive understatement when trying to describe what's happened to a once-great genre. The reason why music tastes move on is not only to find new ground. You close a musical chapter so the bands that wrote the story remain revered and well-loved. And you sure as hell don't sully their name by recreating their music to half the standard set, and then pretending that you fit in. So, Houston Calls, you got on Drive-Thru, the same labels as your personal idols. Great.Okay, I was going to try and be nice about this album, but I'm finding it really hard. 'Stay With Me Tonight' makes me want to punch a wall, it's like the singer was listening to Bert from The Used and then thought 'If I copy him exactly, no-one will ever know!'. But we do know! The difference between Houston Calls and The Used are that The Used actually take steps to innovate in terms of instrumentation and structuring. They were actually an exciting band to listen to. This sounds like a cover of a b-side of a Used single that never got made because the band thought that it wasn't up to scratch. Fuck. Alright, so you've wrecked one good band for me, whats next? 'Nagoya' has a strong opening guitar riff, before settling into the same old bland. But wait, have a quick listen to 'Salt, Sweat, Sugar' by Jimmy Eat World. Oh yes, that guitar riff, the ONE good point of that track, well it's nothing but a complete fucking rip off, isn't it. Great, two bands down. And in the future, Houston Calls, please don't steal the guitar rhythms from one of the most recognisable songs in your genre. That's just asking for it.Right, enough focus, lets just get through the rest of this album. 'Behind The Gun' takes the most from labelmates Something Corporate, and a pre-chorus pulled from My Chemical Romance by force. And the most arrogant tambourine hits I've ever heard. Listen out for them. 'Abandone' sounds horribly forced, an Angels And Airwaves homage that contains mass-shouting chorus backing that HAS to be put in at least once in any pop-punk record. I got about thirty seconds through 'You Can't Simi' before the whole 'writing about a girl' cliche got on my nerves. More moody, emotive music on 'The Oaks On Price' lead into the same old half time chorus, but to their credit they do manage to surprise by not dropping straight in the first time, throwing in a (shocking) change to traditional structure. And stop using that fucking tambourine! Fuck! And the bonus track, 'Dork Thinks He's Gonna Drown' isn't a bonus.There we go. Album done.Oh, i do declare! I've missed tracks 2 through 4. Let me fill you in.2 - All American Rejects 3 - Franz Ferdinand intro into All American Rejects 4 - Probably their best track. Mildly interesting for the first 30 seconds. And then just so standard it's hard to pin down. Sounds like everything you've ever heard ever. Although the chorus lifts My Chemical Romance's 'To The End' vocal melodies, I'm sure of that.This album is so mediocre it's bad. Oh yeah it's played well, but if it was played badly on record, it'd be mediocre AND an obscene waste of studio time. I'm sure that Houston Calls have a strong fanbase of kids who have discovered them as their first foray into pop-punk. However, not even their adoration will be able to save Houston Calls from being anything but an uninvited extension to the lifespan of the now stale genre that they inhabit. Considering the strong pedigree behind them, Houston Calls are entirely uneccesary. The only thing saving them right now is their utter conviction in that what they're doing is still justified, maybe not in a musical sense, but in that sickening 'im doing it for the kids' bullshit that seems trite as soon as you get older than 16. But for anyone senior to 20, or 14 if you've already got a Blink or MyChem album, avoid this like the plague, and check out some of the other bands reviewed on TLOBF. I promise you'll appreciate them more in time, instead of buying this album, and consequently forgetting about Houston Calls by the time the year is out. 35%Houston Calls On Myspace