I'm sorry, Simple Plan.
I'm taking one for the team, guys. The team that thinks this is a bad album.
BECAUSE IT F#@&ING IS!!!
Oh my God...I've never had this meltdown since Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns (don't worry, we'll get to there someday)...at least it took me a long time to realize that album was not as great as I hyped up for. I don't know where to begin...
Let's start with how much of a fan I am to Simple Plan. They were one of the first bands I got into when I was still young, like barely 13 years old. At that time, Still Not Getting Any came out with hot singles like "Welcome To My Life", "Shut Up", "Perfect World", "Untitled" and "Crazy". "Perfect" was also constantly on the radio and TV as a back-to-the-past feature. And their songs still continued playing on the radio as I turned 13 (I think it was like 2006) and I went to a boarding school.
And I didn't mind. Those songs were great, so damn good. They oozes teenage angst, emotions and pop punk flavour (yum yum, so delicious~). Even now, the singles are still great to listen--mostly if you can get past certain annoyance (like whiny Pierre, straightforward lyrics written by a 12-year-old, some cheesy love lyrics). When the self-titled album came out, I asked my dad to buy it and gave me a pirated one because we lived in a pirate world, dammit!
And that album is still my most favourite album to listened to. Because the first album No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls was boring, and the second album Still Not Getting Any was passable. The fourth album Get Your Heart On! was pretty good too, probably be the second favourite from them. But this fifth album, is awful.
Let's focus on the positive, first (if there's any). They still have a lot of energy in them. They're almost in their 40s, and yet Chuck Comeau plays the drum like it's still one of his favourite thing to do on the daily basis; Jeff Stinco and Sebastien Lefebvre makes some really catchy riffs like they're making beautiful babies together (.....oooooookaaaaaay, meeeee. You need a time out.); David Desrosiers...well, he's okay with his bass (I think); and Pierre Bouvier's vocal performance was not bad--he doesn't sound whiny (FINALLY!!) but energetic. Hell, everyone here sounds energetic that they do a lot of yelling and shouting in a lot of the tracks.
Now...onto the negatives...
First off, let's look at each title track, shall we? Now keep in mind when passing a judgement: the guys are almost in their 40s when they wrote these songs and their titles.
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1. Opinion Overload (Oh fucking grow up, it's just an opinion. You either take it or ignore it completely)
2. Boom! (....Too soon, guys.....too soon....)
3. Kiss Me Like Nobody's Watching (Oh yes, let's kiss like any "kissing in public" scene in every movie!)
4. Farewell (...I got nothing to say for this title. This title hits home for me.)
5. Singing In The Rain (*facepalm hard* REALLY?? You guys are a Pop Punk band!! Not High School Musical!! No! You make "Bop to the Top" and "Humuhumunukunukuapua'a" sound like a masterpiece title!!!)
6. Everything Sucks (Oh boo fucking hoo! Here's a full cup...now shut the full cup. You want a straw? Here...Suck it up. Don't thank me, thank Ryan Higa for the FWP Helping Kit.)
7. I Refuse (...Refuse to what? To deny? To admit? You really miss a lot of words there.)
8. I Don't Wanna Go To Bed (Okay, seriously. I don't know what kind of personal vendetta you got with mattresses, but you're almost in your 40s....go to fucking bed whether you like it or not, mister)
9. Nostalgic (Yeah, this makes sense so no say here)
10. Perfectly Perfect (... *slow clap* bravo-ly bravo, manly men. this is awesomely awesome title. Stupidly stupid)
11. I Don't Wanna Be Sad (Oh that's good to hear--Wait, you guys are like rock stars, why would you want to be sad when you guys can almost have anything?)
12. P.S. I Hate You (Wow...wow...just wow...How mature of you...)
13. Problem Child (....Oh fuck me...is this another "Perfect" song? Maybe it's better?...Bad feeling sinking in)
14. I Dream About You (Oooh another cheesy title with possibly cheesy lyrics. This is going to be funny.)
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Now, using the power of the neon blue highlighter to highlight the whole track list, you have found my bubbles of thoughts on each and every title. If you have the same thought of mine, then congratulations--you are one of us: the more mature ones. No matter how much you vent or how whiny your rant may seem, at least you're not Simple Plan. Alright, I'll give them a benefit of the doubt because this is basically "judging a book by its cover", so maybe lyrically they're anywhere decent.
....Sigh....Let's focus on the other problems before we dig into the lyrical content...
So, they mentioned in an interview that they're sticking to the pop punk style they had in the first two albums while mixing the album up with some modern pop style. So basically... they're doing the same thing as they did for Get Your Heart On! And that is not a problem at all....the problem is when they start to lost in their many ideas.
In other words, the whole album felt inconsistent. There are tracks that is just a good old Pop Punk (e.g. Opinion Overload, Nostalgic, I Refuse), but then you got "I Don't Wanna Be Sad" which sounds like it's from a ska punk band (If there's one thing that I passionately hate about Pop Punk originated bands, it's when they all of a sudden pull out their happy trumpets and horns and sing "Hey, we're gonna go ska punk because we need to make you dance instead of jumping up and down". You can make it as catchy as you can, but that won't change the fact that you just pull a middle finger at us who expect POPPITY POPPY PUCKING PACKING PUCK PUNK from YOU!!!! Mic dropped). Then, suddenly we got beach songs. Yeah, we're getting more than one "Summer Paradise" songs in this album. Now, I love "Summer Paradise"--it is damn catchy, poppy, joyful and fun with K'Naan as a featured artist (Sean Paul's version was not great, and Taka of One OK Rock's version was fine and charming). But it was just only one beach song in Get Your Heart On!...ONE beach song. It is a track that you don't expect to hear from the likes of Simple Plan. It's supposed to be a rare thing to listen. That's what makes a beach song unique and likeable. But no, they have to cranked up some more beach songs into their newest album because "Summer Paradise" was a good hit.
If you guys want to make beach songs and pop rock songs through and through, then be my guest! But don't tell us otherwise. When we expect Pop Punk, WE EXPECT POP PUNK!!
But that's not the saddest part. The saddest part is that they are undeniably catchy. There are some good riffs, some decent vocal performances, and some sick drumming as mentioned before. Yeah, there were generic chord progressions here and there but they did it better and more subtly than in Still Not Getting Any or in Simple Plan. But these songs were wasted on poorly written, childish, immature, cheesy, generic lyrics. Try read lyrics for "Singing In The Rain", "P.S I Hate You", "Everything Sucks" and "Kiss Me Like Nobody's Watching". These are the tracks that I really want to like for their music but the lyrics are like reading my 13-year-old self lyrics....except "Singing In The Rain" (I don't know, something about Pierre's vocal performance, the whistling and the group's chanting doesn't do a lot for me).
So what if you can handle corny lyrics? Does the whole album still worth listening for its music only? Well...no, it's still not worth listening through the whole album, or even buy the album. This album also has bad songs--songs that are bad both musically and lyrically. "I Don't Wanna Go To Bed" and "I Dream About You" are two of them. Not even the featured artists here could do anything to make these songs worth listening. Both songs have music that is WAAAY off from your comfort zone.
"I Don't Wanna Go To Bed" is worse than "I Dream About You", though. While "I Dream About You" had a constant repeating lines "I dream about you" and poorly done sad, dreamy tone, "I Don't Wanna Go To Bed" had a beach tone that tries to sound edgy by not having any familiar Simple Plan sound, Nelly's bad verses, and a lyric about "not going to bed without a girl" (That's it, nuff said. The whole lyric is as what the title says).
I can say more about "Perfectly Perfect" being more than just a cheesy "this is for all of you babes" acoustic song, but I really want to talk about the track "Problem Child". "Problem Child" is literally the song "Perfect". The music here is different where it is a slow progressing guitar ballad and only hits the heavy part right in the climax of the song, unlike "Perfect" that feels like going from mountains to mountains. Musically, it's alright. It would have been better if it's not about "you're not being perfect, and can't follow others expectancy". You already have "Perfect" to make us (and the newer generation) feel connected, empathized and maybe feel better. There's no reason to make another. "Problem Child" is nowhere better or as good as "Perfect", to be honest.
As I said before, this album is not worthy of your time. Just buy the songs you like individually on iTunes (or you know, do the pirate way). Unless if you are like me who collect albums of their favourite band, I don't see why not.
With that said, this album got my rating of: 1.5/5
Favourite Tracks: Boom!
Like Tracks: Opinion Overload, Farewell, I Don't Wanna Be Sad, I Refuse, Nostalgic
Mixed Tracks: Everything Sucks, Kiss Me Like Nobody's Watching
Dislike Tracks: I Dream About You, P.S. I Hate You, Singing In The Rain
Hate Tracks: I Don't Wanna Go To Bed, Perfectly Perfect, Problem Child
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