Bowling For Soup – ‘Drunk Dynasty’ [Review]
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Pop-punk often gets a bad rep, with good reason. A good number of pop-punk bands prefer to go at it half-assed, pushing everything they can into live showmanship in a desperate effort to make up for the fact that they suck. This feels more true for new bands than old – but maybe that’s just because the earlier waves of pop-punk did everything so damn well that they set the bar almost impossibly high.
Bowling For Soup are the total package. Go and see them live (as I did at Wembley Arena last night; full review here) and you’ll find yourself in so many stitches you may need medical attention. But the reason Bowling For Soup go over so well live is because they have the songs as well as the showmanship, charisma, personality, image, rhythmic tightness, and so on. It’s impossible to resist.
Drunk Dynasty – Bowling For Soup’s first new release in a few years – is an instant classic collection of pop-punk songs. The focus here is quality; Bowling For Soup don’t push the boundaries, because they don’t have to. On the surface, we’re looking at songs about girls and getting in trouble and all the usual pop-punk staples, but underneath it all lie the core qualities that make Bowling For Soup who they are.
Bittersweet and hilarious lyrics (sometimes both at once) that reference mental health issues without sounding like Nine Inch Nails. Fun. Passion. Energy. Chugging guitars, in-your-face chorus hooks, exactly-what-the-song-needs-and-no-more basslines, solid beats, and that all important X-factor. That intangible charismatic quality that comes together when Jaret Reddick, Chris Burney, Erik Chandler, and Gary Wiseman get together and get jamming.
I’m normally a fan of progressive music, but I’m glad Bowling For Soup haven’t changed.
TMMP RATING: 93% (Essential Listening!)
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