The Wonder Years - The Greatest Generation review

The Wonder Years are back with their eagerly awaited fourth album. The Greatest Generation follows on from the band's most successful album ‘Suburbia: I’ve Given You All and Now I’m Nothing’

The album starts with the impressive ‘There, There’ - a soft opening develops into a mild introduction of the instruments. The mid to the end of the song produces a mix of passionate vocals from Dan Campbell and hard drum beats. The second track ‘Passing Through A Screen Door’ was the first single released from the album and is typical Wonder Years style, fast instrumentation and raw strong vocals from Dan Campbell. At the end of the track Soupy talks about how different the lives are of the people he graduated with.

‘We Could Die Like This’ is another fast one, very similar in nature to songs on the previous two albums released by The Wonder Years. Again the drum and guitar combination is impressive and blends well with the vocals, which makes this track especially catchy particularly in the chorus. The hook ‘I wanna die in the suburbs’ adds to the contagious nature of this song.

‘Dismantling Summer’ has been described by others as the best The Wonder Years song ever written; well it’s certainly one of the best. Again, superb chemistry between the instrumentation and the vocals creates another infectious number; this track reminds me a lot of the previous album which had a number of similarly catchy tracks. I would go as far as saying the chorus is possibly the best The Wonder Years chorus I have heard in their discography.

‘The Bastards, The Vultures, The Wolves’ again is a fast number, again a great combination of raw and softer vocals throughout. Again the riff is very potent, there is also a religious element in this song with the lyric ‘I’m waking up to gospel radio’ this follows on the number of religious elements that appeared in some songs in the ‘Suburbia’ album. ‘The Devil in My Bloodstream’ is something completely new from The Wonder Years, the song has a piano introduction and a combination of Soupy and Laura Stevenson, the song has an unexpected explosion midway through with a sudden vocal burst from Soupy and the introduction of the guitars and drums, this continues throughout to the end of the song, a hugely impressive track.

‘Teenage Parents’ is a much faster track, it is one of my favourite tracks on the album as it reminds me of the first few releases of The Wonder Years because of its style, I also enjoy the drum patterns used in this track. ‘Chaser’ is one of the less frantic numbers on the album; it is much more straightforward and contains a number of hooks which maintains the catchy nature of the album. ‘An American Religion (FSF) begins with an interesting riff, fast drum beats and flowing vocals. It is another catchy track with the frequent hook ‘Does that make you happy’ it is also nice to hear Josh Martin’s vocals being incorporated into the album. ‘A Raindance in Traffic’ again is a fast number, this track features a number of ‘woah oh’s’ combined with Soupy’s ever aggressive vocals and potent drum beats.

‘Madelyn’ is the only acoustic track on the album, and brings an interesting change to the album. The vocals sound distant in this track which adds something new, this track will undoubtedly draw comparisons to ‘Hey Thanks’ but the maturity and development in Soupy’s vocals can be heard in comparison to the naive vocals in ‘Hey Thanks’.

‘Cul-de-sac’ returns the fast nature of this album; the drum patterns and almost high vocals are impressive in this song. Soupy’s vocals are superbly consistent throughout the album and even with the high notes in this song, he excels. ‘I Just Want to Sell Out My Funeral’ is the concluding track on the album and the longest track on the album. The lyrics are sung very strongly in this track; the addition of other vocals is also a pleasant one and keeps adding new things to the album, as the track progresses Soupy’s vocals get even stronger. The ending of the song features lyrics taken from a number of songs on the album combined into a sort of medley to finish the album, very appropriate seeing as they used four of the best songs on the album to create the medley.

Another impressive and brilliantly consistent album from this band, another reason why they are considered to one of or the best pop punk bands in the world in recent times. 

The Story So Far, The American Scene, Gnarwolves @ Clwb Ifor Bach

This was The Story So Far’s third appearance in Cardiff, it is clear that they have made an impact on Wales as this Clwb Ifor Bach sold out prior to the event.

In support were California’s indie rockers The American Scene and UK’s rising pop punkers Gnarwolves.

Gnarwolves kicked the night off around 8pm with their own aggressive take on the genre of pop punk. They played a varied set with songs from their EP’s Fun Club and CRU as well as including three new songs. They received a very positive response from the crowd throughout who sang along to their songs and took a shine to Gnarwolves unique sound. They provided a perfect opening to the gig and successfully warmed up the crowd for the other acts to follow.

Unfortunately, The American Scene received a very different response from the crowd. The American Scene’s sound was refreshing but felt somewhat out of place between two bands with an aggressive and in your face sound. Their set consisted mostly of tracks from their Safe For Now LP. I personally enjoy their music on record, but live their songs lacked the energy that was needed for a pop punk show. The band were consistent throughout their performance, but I feel it wasn't the right show for them to be performing at, they would be much better suited supporting acts such as Into It. Over It. or Hostage Calm.

The Story So Far have been complimented for their live performances, tonight is no different. Their setlist was a perfect mix of songs from both LP’s and with the addition of 680 South the crowd definitely had a night to remember. Every song sparked a frenzy in the crowd, constant crowd surfing and stage diving certainly made it a an active set for all fans, it may have gotten out of hand when a dude received an unfortunate injury while attempting to get on stage; this did give everyone time to get their breath back before the onslaught of crowd activity continued. The tracks from their recently released album ‘What You Don’t See’ went down very well and the crowd were very familiar with the new album, ‘Empty Space’ was a particular favourite of the night for my personally. The set concluded with ‘Quicksand’ which sent nearly every single person into delirium which it so often does in The Story So Far shows. It provided an excellent ending to a very fun show. 

Daylight - Jar review

After releasing three EP’s, Daylight are back with their highly anticipated first full length album ‘Jar’.

‘Sponge’ is a very powerful opener. A perfect opener to the album, big sounding guitar riffs mixed with very clean vocals which add an almost eerie effect to the song. The song ends in typical Daylight style with an experimental riff, low guitar tone and heavy drumbeats. ‘Life In a Jar’ erupts with a very grungy introduction, very similar to the likes of Nirvana. This grungy sound is present throughout with a very low bass tone. The vocals are much stronger in this song, much like the vocal style heard in the ‘Dispirit’ EP.

‘Outside of Me’ and ‘Sheltered’ again show the soft side of Daylight’s vocalists. These two tracks are very flowing in sound and structure and don’t have as much instrumental activity as the first couple of songs. Both songs are very effective at keeping the album rolling onto the next tracks. These tracks will undoubtedly draw comparisons to the sound of bands such as Balance and Composure and Citizen.

‘Crawl’ is my personal favourite on the album, again the use of interesting guitar riffs provides something new, the emotionally charged vocals in this song is what makes this song so likeable. ‘Last October’ continues the powerful theme created by ‘Crawl’ - again the vocals are very emotionally charged and very meaningful, so similar to previous works of Daylight. The potent drums and guitar complements the strong vocals perfectly, the bridge again gives the listener a new experience.

‘Youngest Daughter’ slows down proceedings; it’s a much slower songs than previous on the album. This track is very reminiscent of post-grunge band Sunny Day Real Estate. It provides a nice break in-between the album and shows the variety of sound that Daylight is trying to showcase on their first LP. ‘Knew’ is the first short song that Daylight have ever written, again it shows their progression in sound and their experimentation of new ideas.

‘No One’s Deserving’ is another slower number; again I’m picking up vibes of 1990’s grunge and emo bands, a sound that Daylight draws much comparison too. The vocals are consistently impressive on this album and blend in wonderfully with the sludgy guitar sound.

‘Hole in the Ground’ gives the listener another example of experimenting with different sounds. The guitar and drums are much less potent on this track and the vocals take front stage which is very interesting to hear, others may say that it is a dull number which does not fit on the album but I believe that is encouraging to hear a band experimenting so much on their first full length album.

‘In On It’ was the first song released prior to the album and again in my opinion resembles grunge legends Nirvana. This track is the catchiest on the album and is one of my personal favourites. I have no doubt this track generated great anticipation for the whole album. ‘Around The Railing’ repeats the same nature of the songs towards the start of the album. The vocals are dominant throughout this number until the last couple of minutes which is full on guitar riffs until the end of the track, and the end of an excellent debut album.

It was my most anticipated album of 2013 and it hasn’t disappointed a refreshing combination of a range of different sounds rolled into one album, it will be probably end up as being my favourite album of the year.