Artist: The Remus Lupins
Album: Spells From a Broken Wand
Release Date: April 2006

Reviewed by Lauren.

The Remus Lupins CD Spells from a Broken Wand is one of my favorite wizard rock CD’s right now. One of the first things I noticed is the sound quality on the tracks, in addition to all of the great background vocals. I was used to the songs on Alex’s myspace, that he’d done himself, so this was a nice change. The songs sound professionally done and being in a wizard rock band, I definitely have struggled with a mic and Audacity for too long.

I love the varying points of view in Alex’s songs. He goes from being Harry to Neville to Ron to just a wizard rocker trying to get his point across. The love songs “By The Fire” and “Fell Into My Arms” are really sweet and I like those a lot. You actually can’t listen to “The Ballad of Neville and Luna” and “Burn Your Prefect Badge” without singing along. I’ve tried… it’s not possible.

“Wizard Rock” is really awesome… in fact, I consider it the anthem for wizard rockers all over the place. There are so many of us and it really embodies our whole purpose for getting together and rocking out to songs about books.

The first thing I noticed about “Doomed To Meet” is the piano part. This one really steps out of the comfort zone Alex had built for himself on fun acoustic guitar tunes, and he makes the transition effortlessly. It leaves room for Alex to show off his vocal skills and he does a great job with them. “Remember Cedric” has such heartfelt lyrics and expression that you have to love it.

My favorite song, if I had to pick, is “Snape” (as I told Alex during his set at the show we played with him this summer). Not only is it catchy as hell, but the lyrics are so angry and really capture just how everyone feels about our favorite greasy ex-potions teacher. The song “Have You Seen This Wizard” does the same thing, except it promotes the acceptance of a character we all grew to love. And you’ve got to love “Whose Side Are You On” even if it hurts your vocal cords just listening to how emotional and into it Alex is getting. That’s definitely another of my favorites.

And of course, everyone’s favorite party song “Loosen Your Tie” is really catchy and fun to dance to. I personally made a fool of myself at the show we played with Alex, dancing around with Nina and attempting to get a lot of very unenthusiastic fans to get up from their chairs. “Looking For Trouble” is great as well, in fact it was the first song of Alex’s I ever heard. It still remains one of my favorites.

I know I left a few of them out, but there’s just so much I can say about how great Alex is. In short, get this CD because if you don’t have it already, you’re really seriously missing out on some awesome wizard rock.

You can get Spells From A Broken Wand on The Remus Lupins‘ website.