Review Summary: The album artwork says it all.
I don’t think it’s too far a stretch to say that listening to Radiohead or Opeth is relatable to watching The Godfather or the original Star Wars trilogy. These are films and bands that are almost unanimously hailed as titans in their respective galaxies. They’re classics. Not everyone would call them the greatest movies or bands ever, but very few people would call any of them out rightly terrible. Converge and Fight Club could be comparable; quirky, intense and spastic yet strangely poetic, and you either hate or love them. Dream Theater and Avatar are rather the same for me; lots of flash but very little heart. Then you’ve got Wintersun and The Lord of the Rings, Carnifex and Freddy vs. Jason, and so on and so forth.
Listening to Four Year Strong is watching Die Hard, First Blood, Cliffhanger, Predator and Terminator 2. None of these films are of any consequence. None of them changed your life. None of them really made you think about anything important and aspects of some of them aren’t really good at all. But every time one of them is on TV you just have to watch it. How could you not? They are so incredibly awesome. There's something about Arnold yelling, "Get to da choppaa!!!"
FYS surely have more going for them than the cheese fest Predator (though you still gotta’ watch it) and they’re much more in league with Die Hard. They are incredibly good at what they do. The production is slick, the instrumentation is tight and the vocals are spot on. The lines are witty and the action is compelling. Has something like this been done before? Countless times. One guy against a building full of baddies? Hardcore punk with pop sensibilities, dual vocals and catchy breakdowns? Oh it is indeed a familiar story, but the shootouts and explosions are so much cooler than in all those other one-guy-against-a-zillion movies and the breakdowns are so much more creative and the riffs are far better composed than anything you’ll find on a Set Your Goals disc. Every hook catches you and every chorus makes you want to crank the volume. The songs evolve and avoid carbon-copy repetition, and the breakdowns are marvelous because: A) They’re more sparsely used, and: B) They completely avoid the mindless open drop C chugging that A Day To Remember kill themselves with in every song. Every breakdown has something interesting and dynamic going on, both rhythmically and melodically.
My general philosophy for art is that you don’t have to be original as long as you’re better than the people you’re copying. It’s not terribly romantic, but it really does come down to that. Four Year Strong don’t have an ultra-unique sound, but they sure pull that sound off better than all the competition. You can forget about A Day To Remember. They’re done. Completely obsolete in every way (granted, there aren’t too many on this site that cared about them in the first place). FYS are the new snappy, catchy, happy band on the block and their arrival is a welcomed one.
Now, the question is whether or not FYS can rise to Terminator 2 level. T2 is very much in the same category as Die Hard, but it has a certain quality to it; a certain dramatic weight that makes it more of a great movie than just a cool movie. FYS hints at their potential for this odd kind of greatness with “One Step At A Time.” The song is written for an unnamed someone who has passed away, and while still remaining fast and catchy, it hits an unexpected note of emotional potency that surpasses anything else found within the album on that kind of level. It will be interesting to see what they do with their next full length.
This album is worth buying. It does its job marvelously, and quite a necessary job it is. We need fun albums. Now, the most carefree and inconsequential fun in music cannot last for any amount of time without true quality strung through its length, and thankfully Four Year Strong has quite a lot. This album is wonderful in that it does not apologize for what it is; there is no cheap attempt at some corny acoustic ballad or weird experimentation with Mars Volta vocals to be found here. They will never rise to the level of Thrice and they won’t ever need to. All the songs have the same dynamic (though all of them do have different feels) and it’s in your face with no regrets. But really, is there any other way to do an 80s action movie?
