A Twist In My Story

Where Secondhand Serenade's debut album Awake showed how much John Veseley could do with just acoustic guitars and otherworldly vocal gymnastics, his second album is more fleshed out with a full band and formal sounding orchestration — though his skyward soaring singing remains prominent. Veseley introduces A Twist In My Story with those gorgeously textured vocals breathing life into the hyper-sentimental "Like A Knife," but what comes off as more interesting is hearing how the stripped down "Your Call" and "Maybe" from Awake pan out here — redone, upgraded and fully arranged with ample help from renowned producers Danny Lohner of Nine Inch Nails fame and Butch Walker who has worked with the likes of All American Rejects, Avril Lavigne, Fall Out Boy, Lindsay Lohan, The Donnas and Hot Hot Heat (amongst many others). Fans of Dashboard Confessional and Five For Fighting will find a stirring familiarity in songs like the piano-heavy power ballad "Fall For You" and the haunting "Your Call", and the exclusive bonus track "Tested And True" hints at a young man finally finding an old soul within, and thus beginning to influence himself.