Emotionalpunk.com
Media Review
Music Quality: 9.0
Production: 8.5
Originality: 8.0
Tracklisting
2. The Hit
3. Punish Or Privilege
4. Maybe I'm Wrong
5. Somewhere In The Dark
6. Just Say Yes
7. How Does This Happen?
8. Get Off My Train!
9. Developing You, Camera
10. My White Collared Shirt
11. The Other Piano Man
12. Castaway
I am not over pop punk. My friends have abandoned their Blink 182 albums and opted instead for Kings of Leon or some other shitty bands. Not to say I haven’t evolved as a listener, but Dude Ranch and Let It Happen are perpetually in my car. Newer pop punk is something that I have found to be hit or miss. Valencia? Hit. All Time Low? Miss. Ludo? Hit. Hit the Lights? Ironically, miss. However, one of the most consistent pop punk bands over the last few years has been Pittsburgh’s Punchline.
Punchline was liberated not too long ago. Not from jail or from a hostage situation. Far worse. They were liberated from Fueled by Ramen Records. Once a hotbed of new and up and coming acts, all of which I do not need to name, FBR has become stagnant and has signed too many mediocre bands instead of cultivating the talented ones they had. Now Punchline is label-bullshit free, $25,000 richer thanks to a contest held by Heavy.com and has put out a brand new album titled, Just Say Yes on their label Modern Short Stories. The result is a twelve track homage to the broken hearted that varies on mood, tone and over all song structure in every cut.
It is painfully obvious that someone in Punchline went through something traumatic between the last release and this one. Each song, in it’s own little way, is laced with venom but covered in sugar. Not quite the “My girlfriend broke up with me and now I am going to write a song about it” kind of way. But more of a “I planned my life around you and you have just totally fucked my life over” kind of way. While the songs retain the same borderline goofy lyrics (see “Ghostie”) there is an added element of anger and distain that is less masked by the poppy rhythms going on behind them.
The music itself has evolved in the most natural progression I have seen in a band. Not as dramatic as Brand New’s album to album shifts, but more significant than the repetitive and boring Hawthorne Heights catalog. In addition to having a much more piano driven sound, the band took a few risks in the sound structure of the music. From the jangly and piano driven “Somewhere in the Dark” which gives a feel of Lunch For The Sky era Socratic, to the dramatic and moody “Castaway,” an ode to gaining strength after a dark time. The vocal harmonies are still there, in spades, and musically this is the perfect evolution of this band.
Few bands have done so much with their sound and gotten so little in return as this one and this is one band that I know should be bigger. It certainly is not for lack of trying either. They are a band that has toured relentlessly and worked their butts off to get to where they are today. If you enjoy great pop punk and are thinking about picking up this album, I urge you to Just Say Yes.