Review Summary: Refinement on old ideas and experimentation that doesn't go anywhere.
Despite comparative commercial success as one of the more prominent radio rock bands of the past few years, Pop Evil have failed to escape the criticism that consistently plague their contemporaries and the genre as a whole; from generic songwriting to uninteresting performances. While their 5th LP sees some slight experimentation,
Pop Evil will likely be tossed aside as just another rock album for those who have nothing but Tapout t-shirts in their closet.
The album manages starts off on the right foot by kicking the door down with the opening track and lead single “Waking Lions”: a lone guitar lift opens the track with the rest of the band following along a few measures in, add in a few aggressive verses by vocalist Leigh Kakaty before leading into a powerful, feel good chorus, epitomizing a hard rock banger you’d come to expect from the likes of Pop Evil. “Ex Machina”, follows an identical formula but lacks the same intensity. From there, the band begins to get into some Rage Against the Machine inspired territory with “Colors Bleed” and “Art of War”. Here, Kakaty brings back his rap-esque deliveries from 2013's “Trenches”. Upon first listen these tracks feel awkward and forced but are actually fairly decent; the problem rather, is that the band struggles to supplement these songs with anything truly interesting. One thing that is odd about these songs is how the latter of each pair (Lions: Machina / Colors: War) seem to be little more than dialed down versions of the two lead singles, as if there is a minimum requirement of “heavy” material needed to qualify for their upcoming rock fests.
In the latter two thirds of the album Pop Evil begin to slow things down with a series of mid-tempo rockers and power ballads. While nothing is wrong with any of these tracks individually, the combination making these songs take up the majority of the album and putting all the heavier tracks out in front only seems to drag out the remainder of the run time. Again, this starts off well with “Be Legendary”. With Kakaty’s infectious vocal melodies wonderfully backed by some bouncy instrumentals it creates one of the most infectious moments throughout the whole album. Meanwhile the band then puts out “A Crime to Remember” which sounds like an Imagine Dragons ripoff, complete with all the “yea-ah” and “ooh” vocalisations to compliment a chorus that lasts way too long. “When We Were Young”, on the other hand, might as well be a Shinedown ballad: The band manages to create a rather smooth melody with a light guitar riff over some piano chords, yet the song fails to land a hook with a flat vocal performance, a problem which persists throughout this leg of
Pop Evil. It seems though they are trying juxtapose these various styles of rock music from one another; however, it just ends up sounding like Pop Evil doesn’t have the creativity to full explore the spectrum in detail. Either that, or they couldn’t figure out how to pace this LP.
While Pop Evil have made efforts to experiment with some different sounds here and there, they fail to really lead anywhere before the band slides back into their comfort zone. For example, the track “Nothing But Thieves” opens up with a beautifully atmospheric synth and keyboard waves before transitioning to a series of somber bell tones but it unfortunately all just feeds into some generic power chords that climax into a lackluster chorus. What is even more frustrating is that the band tries to package it all with lyrics that are meant to be deep or introspective and even with social commentary, but none of it actually means anything. Songs like “Colors Bleed” and “Art of War” talk about fighting the system and failed revolutions, but these themes are simply gone after track 4 only to be replaced by less “controversial” topics as if they’re afraid of becoming too much like RATM.
Once again, the band’s biggest problem is their struggle to stand out from their contemporaries you’d find on the radio. Passable performances are not enough to break the radio rock curse, especially if the band is not willing to truly commit to ideas that may have some real substance. The few risks that Pop Evil take on their self-titled album are either hollow or benign and do nothing to challenge the band’s status quo.
Pop Evil is ultimately another passable radio rock album that’ll ultimately be forgotten until the band releases something else in about 2-3 years. Until then, your search for some new tunes will probably be better spent elsewhere, as those of us who still listen to the radio will be listening to this for a little while longer at least.
