Review Summary: A lazy and boring release from a band once built upon energy and fun.
Forever the Sickest Kids have grown to be a sort of guilty pleasure of mine. The cheesy lyricism and undeniably catchy tone of their music is enough to grab attention, which is exactly what they did with ‘Underdog Alma Mater’, the band's debut full length back in 2009. In fact, the only thing that keeps this band just above the listenable peak is the amount of energy and fun they put in almost all of their music. Things have changed though, and everything that kept this band going through their previous releases has suddenly disappeared with the group's second full length, ‘Forever the Sickest Kids’.
Meant to be the second EP in a series of releases called the “Weekend” series, the band has claimed that they had enough music to put the idea to the side and just release a self-titled full length. One of the things you instantly notice here is a slight change in sound, some might call it maturing while I simply call it degression. Most of the songs featured on the album seem to have no effort put forth, containing bland and boring elements that never do the band any justice. The album opener turns out to be quite a tease as well, ‘Bringing Me Down’ does a great job at opening the album with an attention catcher. The song is freakishly catchy and so much fun to listen too, but when you move on beyond that is when you start to lose that level of fun.
A lot of songs on the record are indeed catchy, but filled with constantly recycled ideas that have already tired out, and hearing them being used again and again becomes aggravating. Following the first song is ‘I Guess You Can Say Things Are Getting Pretty Serious’, which does feature a good energy level, never does anything to make it stand out, which is the case for a good amount of songs here. ‘Life of the Party’ is an almost unbearable track lead by it’s pop influenced synth and dance song style and rhythm, it’s a perfect Disney Channel track designed for younger girls to dance around too in their bedrooms. From this point on, everything on the album just seems to fly by, it all blends together and becomes nothing more than background noise.
‘King For A Day’ features an easy to sing along to chorus, but backed with its terrible lyrics and boring musicianship, never really hits the level of excitement it should. The same goes for ‘BiPolar, Baby’, a song we’ve heard a thousand times before just recycled with it’s own little twists the band threw on it. My personal favorite track on the album, ‘Forever Girl’ is a layed back acoustic love track that does a good job at just being catchy. It’s nothing new, but it’s a fun song to sing along with and listen too every now and then. Album closer, ‘What Happened to Emotion (Killing Me)’ had so much going for it, since it’s actually not that bad of a song. At the same time though, it just seems to fall short of being noteworthy of any sort of attention.
Forever the Sickest Kids have hit a point with their Self-Titled album where it’s going to be hard to bounce back from. It’s either they continue to make laughable Disney inspired tunes like what’s to be found on here, or they attempt to do something for everyone and bring back that level of fun and excitement I think about when it comes to hearing this band. All we get here is a collection of really bad tracks, and with the two songs on the record I actually came to like, it still doesn’t help the obvious laziness that went into this album, and if this is the best the group can do, then best of luck to them.
