Review Summary: What today's Green Day should strive to create.
I came to this album having never listened to Frank Carter or any of the bands that he is associated with. What I find here is a tasteful dose of modern day pop-punk. I mention Green Day in my summary because I get similar vibes to them - just with less cheesy lyrics and song concepts. The "megaphone style" vocals remind me of something straight off Revolution Radio. That being said, Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes inject a bit more creativity and conscience into their songwriting than you will find in commercially successful music like that of a band like Green Day.
Album opener "Bluebelle" is a soft, concise piece of music that transitions nicely into the incredibly catchy "Lullaby", which is, in my opinion, the most mainstream song on the album. The chorus pumps along at an anthemic pace, offering some chord transitions that are like candy to the ears. Following "Lullaby" is another borderline poppy tune called "Snake Eyes". While a little less toned down when it comes to commercial accessibility, I still find myself enveloped in super-catchy sounds that bring me back to radio-friendly rock. This is not necessarily a bad thing; it just is what it is.
"Vampires" is yet another song that I could hear being pumped through the channels of your local alternative rock radio station. I thoroughly enjoy the somewhat gloomy tone that I pick up throughout the song as well as the throwback to some classic gunslinger guitar leads layered on top of some thumping punk rock drumming patterns. The middle of the album contains some tracks that offer more of the same. "Wild Flowers" tells the story of a beautiful girl that one might clamor over. Things slow down a bit on the song "Acid Veins", where we get a bit more clamoring as Frank sings about the longing that he feels to have something special with another person. We also pick up on the theme of the album where he mentions being king of modern ruin: "Give me love / Something new / Something inspired / Something to lose". I find here some of my favorite lyrics on the album as it is something that we all long for: something so special that it would truly be devastating to lose.
Prior to the song "Jackals", which is a bit of an interlude (albeit one that is filled with aggression), "God is My Friend" gives me a sense of pain and suffering. One of the most memorable songs on the album, "Thunder" tackles right and wrong in war and how the worst casualties are often the innocent. Following probably the most forgettable song, "Real Life", is the title track of the album, where we hear Frank go all out vocally. "Modern Ruin" is a riff-heavy track that brings some of the aggression that is missing on the first half of the album. I wish that they maintained this sound throughout the earlier songs. The album closer "Neon Rust" concludes the album on a high note with the vocals echoing out "we don't belong in a wasteland".
This album combines many pop punk elements with just the slightest hint of raw aggression that we traditionally see in the roots of punk music. While I would have liked the sounds on many of these songs to lean more on the side of that aggression, the collection of catchy, anthemic hooks on this thing still leaves me feeling satisfied.
