Review Summary: Sadly, the Aquabats once fun, catchy, infectious style has become mostly just infectious.
The Aquabats have always been an interesting band to me. They were really the first ska band I was introduced to when a friend played me “Martian Girl” one day. From there, it was a love/hate type of relationship between the Aquabats and me. I loved them. And no matter what ridiculous drivel they spat out, I still wanted to love them. And man, I’m still trying.
The Aquabats slowly transformed from a ska band into… um… whatever they are now. They are honestly a hard band to classify. They still retain their ska roots, although they no longer have horns. Instead, they utilize the synthesizer to a great degree. There are even instances where you will hear auto-tune in the background and a greater abundance of electronics, such as In My Dreams!, a nice laid-back ditty. The Aquabats have always done their best at writing insanely fun, catchy sing-along tunes. And they still succeed at this at certain points throughout
Hi-Five Soup! The standouts would probably have to be
Shark Fighter!,
Radio Down!, and arguably,
Luck Dragon Lady! You will find yourself wailing along with the Bat Commander throughout these songs.
But that’s about where it stops. As is probably common knowledge by now, the MC Bat Commander is the creator of childrens’ show “Yo Gabba Gabba.” Clearly, the two have influence on each other. Even in the aforementioned
Luck Dragon Lady!, while the chorus is a great, soaring singalong piece, the verses of that same song are grating and obnoxious. And sadly, those two words can be applied to a lot of the rest of
Hi-Five Soup! While they have never been known for their overly-intelligent lyrics, they are almost pathetic this time around. In
B.F.F!, which is kind of promising, the of course catchy chorus is spoiled by a gang vocal of children, and then the bridge is blatantly abusing auto-tune for unknown reasons, as the Bat Commander is capable enough of holding his own on the vocal front.
Poppin’ A Wheelie! and
All My Money! will have you staring at your music device in disbelief thinking “What am I even listening to?” And not in a good way.
It’s clear that they at least still have passion about their music, which is a plus. There are moments that will have you shaking your head with a smile on your face And again, the Aquabats are still writing catchy music that will get stuck in your head, but the question now is, Do you really want these songs stuck in your head?
