Review Summary: An underrated, heart-felt pop-punk gem.
Imagine you’re a hormone-fueled teenager again. You’re full of angst, you’ve been freshly dumped, and you have a knack for writing songs. For the past couple years, you’ve been listening to a lot of punk music, but a little pop never hurt anyone, so naturally, it would be logical to fuse the two together into you’re writing. Imagine recording an album with every song you wrote in that time, but putting more effort and creativity you had at first glance of the original draft. I would think it would sound something like
Ten Second Epic’s sophomore release
Count Yourself In.
Starting off the album is
Suck It Up, Princess. You get blasted with a furious pop punk riff with a snarl from vocalist Andrew Usenik who spends the song singing about the consequences of ending a long-lasting relationship.
You never thought you’d beg, but you’re lonely, Usenik croons to you, telling you how pathetic you’ve become. A soaring chorus with melodic vocals follows, and comes an unnecessary bridge section which leads to a bouncy riff. This for me, just screams break-up album, and lo-and behold the entire album is pretty much a collection of them. With the style the band uses (a mix of melodic not-quite-hardcore and pop punk) it works fantastically.
Lead single
Count Yourself In at first listen, sounds like a motivational anthem to give up your boring life, and live the dream, but after some research, it was actually written as a tribute to the band
Drakes. A calm finger-picked riff opens the song with a mellow atmosphere, that is, until the drums and electric guitars kick in.
You don’t deserve to be unnoticed, you don’t deserve to be treated like that. You’ve gone too far to be unnoticed, so let’s get home, Usenik sings in a welcoming sincere tone, as that seems to be a common theme throughout the album, sincerity. Everything on this album is sincere and heartfelt, and you can tell by the passion in his voice. Almost every song has a memorable riff placed somewhere throughout the song, my favorite of which being the intro to
Boys Will Be Boys. Speaking of which, the guitars accent the melodies perfectly and the drums are superb. In a nutshell,
Ten Second Epic is basically a Canadian version of
The Swellers.
With everything I’ve said so far, there are very few low points throughout the album. One being the 5th track
I Got What I Wanted, Lost What I Had though the chorus is fantastic and does save the song. Most songs blur together, and unless you listen intently to the lyrics, or recognize the riffs, you won’t be able to tell which song is which, but if you’re a fan of pop-punk music, it shouldn’t bother you too much. If you enjoy The Swellers, check out this album. If you enjoy the slower side of pop punk, check out this album. If you’re not sure, listen to either one of the recommended tracks.
Count Yourself In is a sadly underrated and overlooked gem of pop punk.
Recommended Tracks
-Suck It Up, Princess
-Count Yourself In
-Pont Blank Victoria
