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Release Date: April 3, 2007 Label: Tooth & Nail / Virgin Records Related Sites: · Official Site Grade: B

All of these songs were written during the recording of Underoath's Defining The Great Line and served as a musical outlet for material that wasn't appropriate to Underoath's style. The one thing Southern Weather reveals is that Gillespie is truly a talented musician, ably tackling any instrument he chooses to pick up. The album begins with the first single, "Say This Sooner", a fiery opener that displays the best drum work you'll hear on the entire set. It also has the curious distinction of being only one of two songs (the other being "Southern Weather") that actual have words that are mentioned in the title. The rest all have clever names, but do little to cause you to remember them in the long run (You: "I love that beautiful ballad, 'All of Me' by Evanescence." Me: "You mean 'My Immortal'?").

Many of the remaining tracks are straight rock tunes ("Drive There Now," "Stop It," "Everyone Here Smells Like A Rat," "Everything That Makes Me Sick") featuring Gillespie's emo-esque vocal delivery, with only one more fast-paced effort ("Call Back When I'm Honest") in the bunch. These slightly-generic -- though still potent -- tunes are offset by a handful of distinctive songs. "Dirty And Left Out" is an acoustic number with guest vocals by Sunny Day Real Estate singer Jeremy Enigk. It kind of sounds like cranked-down Old 97's, and is the only song to invoke the name of Jesus as Savior -- a rather jarring moment in contrast to the admittedly nebulous content offered elsewhere ("They're kind of vague--which is sort of the way I like to write lyrics--so people can just latch on to them in any way they like," Gillespie tells Alternative Press.)

Gillespie does introduce additional talent to the project, with the greatest effect evidenced on "Amazing Because It Is", which utilizes the words from the first verse of the hymn "Amazing Grace" as the chorus. It has a humble acoustic beginning, then adds a subtle horn and string arrangement by Matt Slocum (best known as guitarist for Sixpence None the Richer and writer of their hit "Kiss Me" -- he also plays cello on this track). By the time it reaches the refrain, a full chorus has been employed, courtesy of The Youth Group at Calvary Fellowship in Mountlake Terrace, Washington. No longer restrained, Gillespie adds drums, guitar and bass at this point to bring it to a rousing conclusion.

The Starting Line’s Kenny Vasoli lends his vocal talent to "I Mostly Copy Other People" as well as playing bass here and on "Southern Weather". Both of these tunes benefit from strong imagery seeking out a better life than what one is presented. "I Mostly Copy Other People" speaks of achieving fame ("I wanna make them like us/I wanna make them worship us") before getting a dose of reality ("Ain't it a shame that they won't remember all of this/We're all just fakin' out with someone/Who tells us what we should miss"), while the title track refuses to enter into another's misery ("If my faults are your song, then I will not be content to sing along"). There's clean production by poor old lu's Aaron Sprinkle, although some parts feel pieced together. I would guess there'd be alot of bouncing down of tracks trying to assemble one guy's individual performances. Sprinkle also sings on "Never Say 'I Told You So'", which contains a line that I most identified with: "Just tell me what's the difference that's between being myself and being oh so together with my thoughts."

Gillespie has assembled a band to take on the road comprised of Jay Vilardi (guitar), Nick D’Amico (guitar), Alex Aponte (bass) and Kenny Bozich (drums). The group will join the Vans Warped Tour for select dates later this summer. The Underoath timekeeper has fashioned a solid melodic effort for this release, and should you catch The Almost in concert and enjoy yourself, blame it on this "Southern Weather".