Pop punk. The genre of the 90s teenager, the genre of garage rehearsals, of baggy tshirts and hair so spiked with gel it could take your eye out. The genre of teenage angst and male mascara. The genre that brought you: 'Everything sucks', 'school is dumb', 'being in a band is a
real job mom' and other assorted issues troubling the lives of middle-class suburban, Californian teens.
For what it lacks creatively, you could argue, it makes up for in its easy-listening quality and 'relatable' charm. Its wave of popularity in the late nineties saw the emergence of three giants of pop-punk:
Green Day, Blink 182 and Sum 41 who themselves inspired a generation of bands from
Neck Deep to
A Day To Remember, shaping the style of pop music for several years to come. The power chords, simplistic structure and basic harmonies (albeit synthesised within an inch of their lives) of
Busted and
Avril Lavigne can be directly traced back to the pop-punk movement.
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| A common or garden pop-punk fanboy |
Green Day's
Basket Case, Blink 182's
All The Small Things and Sum 41's
In Too Deep/Fat Lip respectively were catapulted to anthemic status thanks to plenty of radio airtime and huge commercial success. For many people however, the past is where these bands remain, a Polaroid of the nineties nostalgically belted out in the singalong room of a nightclub at 3am or during a 10 o'clock re-run of
American Pie on ITV 2... but ultimately forgotten. This is reflected in the slump of their commercial success. Be this due to alcohol/drug addiction, band falling-outs or a simple inablity to recreate the youthful catchiness of their past records, it can't be known but all three have dropped off the mainstream radar in recent years.
Well the giants are back... all three releasing new albums in the past 3 months for a veritable feast of pop-punk. I urge you to have a listen and work out for yourselves if I'm talking bollocks or not.
Sum 41 - 13 Voices
In mainstream circles, Sum 41 would be considered a '2-hit wonder' of sorts. Their SkatePunk masterpiece
All Killer, No Filler was never followed by anything nearly as successful, with a combination of personnel changes and Deryck Whibley's alcoholism forcing the band into a hiatus by 2011. However, they return now (with Dave 'Brownsound' Baksh) with the metal-inspired
13 Voices. Despite a generally far heavier sound than fans would be accustomed to, the familiar spoken/shouted SkatePunk verses remain integral.
This transition towards a more metallic style, with its accompanying fast-paced guitar/drums and more complex composition is pretty well-suited to the Canadians' punk-orientated style. In some songs this comes off brilliantly including
Fake My Own Death (one of the record's best tracks) with its
Muse-like intro and bridge combining nicely with the more recognisably catchy harmonies in the chorus. The title track
13 Voices too benefits from such a powerful intro. However, this sonic transition seems slightly forced in several of the songs, notably
Goddamn I'm Dead Again and
The Fall And The Rise,
which both lack a memorable hook.
Abandoning the traditional high school-themed lyrical tropes of 'classic' (it feels stupid using that word) pop-punk, the content focuses on Wihbley's battle with and recovery from alcoholism. This imagery can be seen most evidently in
War, my favourite track. The music video mirrors this with Whibley literally burning his old stuff: skateboard, guitar (incredibly confusing) and most importantly a bottle of Jack. Very metaphorical.
For fans of the group, it is a known fact that the band (Whibley in particular) have flirted more and more with metal throughout their career with songs like
Pain For Pleasure and
Bloody Murder but for me, their combined metal-pop-punk sound needs more refinement.
6.5/10
I can say from firsthand experience that they remain good live though.
Green Day - Revolution Radio
Green Day have undergone a similar reinvention since
Dookie and
Nimrod, transitioning towards a far more classic rock sound.
Revolution Radio is simply a continuation of that, its opener
Somewhere Now's intro testament to their inspiration: namely
The Who and
Cream. Overall though, it's a pretty archetypal Green Day record featuring the familiar muted guitar verses, relatively simple chord progressions, soaring harmonies and generally lots of 'OOOOOHH's in the background. Like it or hate it they are nothing if not consistent. That being said, they are certainly growing (slightly) more adventurous with some pretty complex guitar solos in
Revolution Radio and
Say Goodbye.
The album certainly offers some standout tracks in
Revolution Radio, Somewhere Now and
Still Breathing. Its also refreshing to hear them explore that rock and roll side further than before.
However, any record they produce will always be inescapably compared to
American Idiot, particularly when there isn't exactly much deviation from their blueprint. And unfortunately its never going to be a favourable comparison for them.
Revolution Radio lacks both the political edge and the delicacy (apart from the raw fragility of
Ordinary World) of its predecessors. It shines brilliantly through several singles but the record as a whole has not reached past standards.
6/10
Blink 182 - California
Age has been incredibly kind to Blink 182. Over the years they've transitioned from childish teenagers singing anthems about high school, house parties and girls to...... childish 40 year-olds singing anthems about high school, house parties and girls. They've become the obnoxious uncles of the genre. Despite numerous break-ups in the past, this is the first album released under the name 'Blink 182' without founding member Tom Delonge. His replacement,
Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba slots into the group seamlessly, bringing significant creative powers of his own.
For me,
California strikes the perfect balance between experimental and nostalgic. The new synthesizers (in
Left Alone for example), guitar arrangements and (slightly) more nuanced lyrics blend with the effortless harmonies and simplistic song structure we can all recognise as 'classic Blink'. In Matt Skiba, they have found a voice pretty much identical to Delonge with one key difference: Skiba can still actually sing and harmonises perfectly with Hoppus. It is these harmonies which are certainly my favourite feature of the album. They shine through in nearly every song and the slight auto-tuning actually makes the voices blend together that extra bit better.
As well as this, the album really demonstrates the Californian trio's growing lyrical maturity, the highlight being
Home Is Such A Lonely Place Without You: the album's version of
Down or
Stay Together For The Kids. Okay, when I say maturity, this is by Blink 182's standards, you've still got songs like
Sober ("I know I messed up and it might be over/ But let me call you when I'm sober") and Kings Of The Weekend ("It's Friday night let's lose our minds") which remain very much in the 'High School' songwriting domain. Of course there's the old "nah nah nah nah nah"s chucked about left right and centre but that's customary really. How they can sing about being
Teenage Satellites when they experienced their teenage years over 20 years ago seems baffling but, somehow, not once does it seem out of place.
8/10
All of these factors combine to produce that sound that is unmistakably Blink 182 and that really is their charm. Sure it may not be groundbreaking, but they never try to reinvent themselves, nor do they attempt to emulate other styles. "High School, beer and girls" is what they began with and its what they're bloody well sticking with to this day. And that, ladies and gents, is why
California is the only 'Pop-punk' album on this list.
