Review Summary: As dead as the skull on the cover
Social Code’s 2007 self-titled album was a faithful re-creation of all things young-made radio rock in the wee hours of the last decade. Touches of Billy Talent, the ambitions of Good Charlotte, and even the alt-rock, radio-drive like-mindedness of any given post-grunge, sore-throat belcher band known to plant numero diez positions with their singles on the mainstream charts flowed through cuts such as “He Said, She Said” and “Bomb Hands”. Too bad the singles largely went through their rotation unheard – in all honesty, they really shouldn’t have. Fast forward to circa post-Nickelback and Hinder headache that is 2010, and we find this quintet from Canada returning to the days of the 80s – a time when radio rock charted a little higher and was taken a little more seriously. From a commercial standpoint, whether that proves to be the case for this band’s
Rock 'N’ Roll is yet to be seen - I doubt it - but as far as quality goes we’ve certainly heard better – thirty years ago, too.
Social Code begins
Rock 'N’ Roll with its title track, an acoustic ballad that has Travis Nesbitt declaring his love for the art in question in very much the same way a young teeny bopper might confess his or her affections to a sweet heart. From there, it’s a trip through the days of Reaganomics. Anything from the tactics of love ala Aerosmith in the face-first rocker “Satisfied” and the slower-verse-passionate-chorus structure of “Real Girl” to the water-drop harmonics of “Perfect Grave” brings back memories of sporting mullets and leather jackets while driving your rich stepdad’s Magnum PI. Influence wise, Social Code certainly play their cards well, being sure to properly make known who they plagiarized each idea from after the first ten seconds of each track.
The problems with
Rock 'N’ Roll come in how washed-out everything feels on here. It’s like playing any given current modern rock hit over and over: it’s bound to get tiresome, whether after just five plays or thirty, but the problem here is that the tracks get tiresome after just
one play; the hooks are blatant and obvious, yet they have very hardly any ability whatsoever to effectively wind around anyone’s head. “Stay” plays the pleading boy for girl thing, starting on a minimal verse before a drum throws us into the chorus. As this track demonstrates – actually, they all do - Travis Nesbitt’s sentiments seem formulaic and starved, merely filling in the calculated melodies with reasonable lyrics to fit the kind of thing these guys are going for; i.e., girls, typical life problems – going nowhere,
girls, etc - and, of course, rock n’ roll. The album is a fond reminder of those days now thirty years gone – well, to those that want to remember it anyway – but the music here is dry, formulaic, and, in essence, as dead as the skull on the cover.
