Eyeshine doesn’t receive enough recognition. My Paper Kingdom released in 2009 was their 2^nd album. I’m going to start with the band’s history and go from there.

The lead singer-songwriter/ guitarist Johnny Yong Bosch formed Eyeshine. You probably recognize him as Adam from Power Rangers or as the voice of Vash from Trigun, Ichigo from Bleach, Claus from Last Exile, Lelouch from Code Geass, or any other anime. Yeah, he’s a pretty big name in the anime industry.

For a while he had trouble finding work. Then in 1998 he taught himself how to play the guitar and formed Eyeshine, a four-piece band that plays what Johnny calls Edge-rock. Even though they aren’t signed onto a label, they have recorded 8 albums.

The opening track of the most recent album “Break the Clouds” is a soft/ alternative rock song about one’s desire to break out of his/ her environment. Like a lot of songs, this song both calm and hypes me. The next song is entitled “Fighting,” which is a more powerful and slow song. “Alone” is one of those soft rock songs about being alone and how horrible it feels. And finally, the ending track “California Bound” is a song which is like how the New Radicals would sound like if they played alternative rock.

Listening to any of these might give you the same reaction– calmed and hyped. They are all awesome, and I would give this album, and the rest of their albums, a huge recommendation.