Review Summary: Defining pop-punk/hardcore as their own, A Shipwreck A Castaway is a band that in due time will turn heads.
It’s hard to define pop-punk/hardcore, since there are so many different ways to be labeled as it, you can’t just name one or two bands in order to get a general idea of sound. A Shipwreck A Castaway is a California based pop-punk/hardcore group that brings an utterly familiar sound to the genre, but keeps it different enough in it’s own little ways. You expect different things after hearing their genre, and you hear a little bit of that through the entire EP but it stays consistent and fun enough for you to keep revisiting it all again and again. The bands debut
Life in General is everything you could want and need from the genre, while being real in it’s lyricism and fun in it’s sound.
Delivering something new and exciting is the hardest part about being in a band, and it seems like A Shipwreck A Castaway doesn’t try to bring anything new to the table, but they emphasize on all the better elements of the genre. One of those elements is the vocal variety which is noticed instantly in the opening track, ‘I’ve Got A Bad Feeling About This’. Everything from the gang shouts to the angrier yelling vocal set up fit’s the song and delivers a wide assortment of sounds throughout. Another instantly noticeable aspect is the pure catchiness of not only this song, but every track on the EP.
‘I Love You, I Know’ features an undeniably ear catching chorus that isn’t easy to get out of your head when the song comes to a close, but that’s not the only thing that catches your attention. The entire song is built on energy, and when it does come to that brief slow down towards the end, it jumps right back into a head bobbing infectious bridge. ‘It’s A Trap’ was a hard song for me to breakdown, simply because the music is a shell of the darkness behind the song. Telling the story of a kid growing up without a father, it manages to hit a personal note to it’s listener while still being a very upbeat catchy track. It’s the slowest song on
Life in General but doesn’t really say much as it keeps the energy up.
”I know what’s hurting me the most, it’s been twenty years and my fathers still a faceless ghost.”
Managing to take such a personal lyrical topic and making it as catchy and fun to listen too is a challenge, but they pull it off here without a single problem. ‘More Machine Than Man’ is a straightforward pop-punk track, backed by a terrific synth line, excellent lapping vocals in the chorus and an endless amount of energy. The riff here is ultra catchy and leads into that hardcore style breakdown that doesn’t make the song feel awkward or random, it actually fits quite well.
This all comes down to ‘Set Blasters’, which features appropriate ending lyrics and ends the EP with just as much energy as it started with. It’s not hard to go back and hit play on
Life in General again and again, and while you can’t really call these guys original, they’re fresh enough to make an impact on the genre. In due time, we find a band that will grab attention and turn heads for all those furious pop-punk fans out there.
