Review Summary: Predeictable, Generic pop punk that barely entertains.
Why is it in pop punk music that whenever one band has a good idea, it is almost instantly emulated where countless inferior bands until you can no longer stand that first band that had the creative spark in the first place. When Blink 182 started adding more pop to the pop punk mix with Enema of the State, along came New Found Glory, Sugarcult and practically ever band on Drive Thru records circa 2000-2003. When Thursday wrote the masterpiece that is Full Collapse they surely must have been dismayed to find Silverstein, Chiodos and A Static Lullaby to name a few completely slaughtering the sound that made them famous. In Self Against City’s case there benchmark is surely Fall Out Boy, with a little Academy Is thrown in. Now before Fall Out Boy became the name on every 12 year old girl’s lips they actually wrote one kick ass pop punk album by the name of Take This to Your Grave and hence forth arrogant, tongue in cheek lyrics coupled with a catchy chorus and a few power chords has pretty much been the make up for 95% of pop punk records made after it. For a band with such a blatant lack of originality Self Against City aren’t that bad. Their listenable if not enjoyable, but the whole thing is just so bland and un-inventive that it’s difficult to take a positive on this album. This kind of thing can be done quite well, in fact Hit The Lights’ This is a Stickup…don’t make it Murder is a great listen, nothing special but its not bad.
For starters we are treated to
Becoming a Monster and there are whiny vocals, faux teen angst a plenty, this song could probably be taken from most Fuelled by Ramen releases (although the band themselves are on Drive Thru) and I would of struggled to pick it out as being a different band. Lyrically it’s poor, “Lately I’ve been thinking about becoming everything I ever wanted to be,” Seriously, what the hell is that about, even the hook is pretty bad, and I’m a sucker for a catchy chorus. Deserved of a special mention is the line, “I never gave a *** about your friends anyway.” I am making it my new year’s resolution not to listen to any bands that have that or a similar line within a song, mark my words, there are a lot of them around. Second track
Stroke of Luck starts with a repetitive keyboard riff anyone could play after about twenty minutes practice, it’s a slower song and they really need to listen to Commit This to Memory by The Motion City Soundtrack if they want to learn how to make great keyboard driven pop punk. On the single,
Ready and Willing, vocalists Jonathan Michael sings, ““Overrated boys and attention starved girls/a little curious/a little insecure,” which is remarkably similar to a Panic! At the Disco song, to avoid me having to actually having to type it out ill let you guess which one it is. The album gets slower as it progresses which is rarely a good sign,
Tequila Moonlight has a Taking Back Sunday, slow song feel to it and I’m not talking Tell All Your Friends era. You Got It sounds very much like the Academy Is, not a compliment in my book, although even the Academy Is don’t make songs this generic.
Now I am fully, fully aware that pop punk is a repetitive genre with little experimentation but Self Against City really just take this too far. It is possible to play a generic style of music yet add your own twist. New Found Glory basically made a career of playing very Blink-esq pop punk but with nasal vocals and a slight hardcore punk influence they created their niche. If Self Against City want any respect outside of the teenage girl crowd they are going to have try harder next time round.
. /votes
