The Story So Far : "I Want to Disappear"

 

This album is clearly more on the side of pop-punk than what I normally listen to, so I am breaking it up and just listening to one song at a time with breaks between listening to other albums I am reviewing before returning to this one. One reason for doing this is that the band is clearly good at what they do. By trying to power through this, what they do would wear on me, so returning to each song fresh is the best way to handle this one. The vocals are a little too sugary sweet, and too happy in the anthemic manner they cheer the listener on. The choruses are shooting for catchy and anthemic as most of this type of pop punk does. Though it is almost to a fault as it is hard not to hear Blink 182 at times.

"Letterman" works best when it holds back on the verses. It is still too happy for me, but that is more of a fault in the genre itself. The way the vocals are produced points the finger the hardest in the Blink 182 direction, It does not do a song like "Big Blind' justice as a different approach might tone down some poppy elements calling the shot, when if the guitars were brought up in the mix and the high end frequencies compressed to begin out the gain to roughen things up it might sound more like the Get Up, marking the fine line between clever and stupid. "Nothing to Say" is almost a punk song, but the vocals pretty much ruin it. If the vocals had more bite or balls to them it might work better for me. 

When darker moods are toyed with on "Keep You Around" things work better for them. The vocals are not grittier, but the sunshine in them is toned down enough to make it tolerable even when they continue to follow their formula on the chorus. They sound a little more like Fall Out Boy on "You're Still in My Way", though when you weigh it against them it's not as poppy.  The vocal arrangement might be the strong point here. At least when they commit to the emo strum of "White Shores" it sounds less like Blink 182, even on the chorus, which is frequently the main offender. The title track continues down this more strummed emo ballad road. However, I don't think this is done as well as it is in the previous song. I will give this an 8 because for a pop-punk album it is at least well done for what it is, I am rounding it down to an 8, because of the lack of originality due to holding their influences too close to their hearts,. but if you like pop-punk you like this as you do not know what actual punk sounds like so your expectations are low. 

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