PowerPop attempts a comeback

So a few pop-punk bands that were life for a lot of people 16 years ago are trying to make a comeback.  Here's my take.  First, times have changed, the band members are older and NO, they're not gonna sound exactly the same.  If you complain that they don't, you're probably just sour that you can't relive your teen years with the same soundtrack.  Second, I don't think they're doing it "for the money." These guys are artists and they are expressing their creativity.  With so many ways for music to be pirated, they might be releasing new music to sell some tickets to concerts and some new t-shirts, but they certainly aren't going to make a killing like they used to.  I believe they are genuinely into their new material.

Blink 182 is missing Tom DeLonge who apparently is half out of his mind with his UFO-chasing self.  He is replaced in the band by guitarist and vocalist Matt Skiba, formerly of Alkaline Trio.  Matt is certainly a talented guy and a great fit for Blink 182.  He has a great voice and is a better musician.  People that are saying the new Blink is like +44 aren't doing the new tunes justice.  +44 was by far the worst of the Blink side projects.  The problem becomes the fact that Matt's voice is too similar to Mark Hoppus that you don't get the variety that you used to, and you certainly don't get the nasally California style whine that Tom sang with.  The album California came out on July 11 and contains 16 tracks, although two are clips of under 30 seconds and two are songs less than two minutes long.  The middle of the disc I think is where the new version of Blink is best exemplified.

No Future has a good blend of the two vocalists, an upbeat tempo and a "na na na" sing along chorus. A slower song, Home is Such A Lonely Place, follows.  It has a beautiful melody and acoustic guitar. The drums pick up mid-way through to add some diversity of sound and intensity of emotion.  It's not the crybaby emo type of song that they may have done in the past, but a more mature sad song if that makes sense.  Kings of the Weekend is a rocker, but it ironically says "Thank God for punk rock bands" when this album is definitely devoid of their older punk sound.  Rabbit Hole and The Only Thing That Matters are the closest they get to punk, and while fun songs, they aren't punk rock either. Some would say that California is over-produced, but I think its a fantastic mixing job that highlights each of the players.  What is lost is the rawness that their earlier works had.  Overall, there is a pretty interesting diversity of sounds here that will give it great repeatability.

The new Good Charlotte album is called Youth Authority.  While they may have been that once, I think they are grasping a little too hard at times long since past with that album title.  The good news is the tunes are more authentic than they produced on their last two albums.  Lead track Life Changes is reminiscent of early 2000s GC.  40 oz. Dream is kind of a lame pop song, but the lyrics are a trip down memory lane of the 80s and 90s days when MTV played music and Dre & Snoop were the kings of gangsta rap.  Life Can't Get Much Better seems better suited to the youth of today than the youth of their heyday.  It's a mix of bubblegum and emo.  Songs featuring Kellin Quinn of Sleeping With Sirens and Simon Neil of Scottish band Biffy Clyro do nothing to either further the modern appeal of Good Charlotte, nor the establishment of them as a timeless pop-punk-rock band.  I loved the debut album by Good Charlotte and saw them three times in 2001 alone.  Unfortunately, they haven't been true to their original punk ethos since and this album is not a bad attempt at a comeback, but leaves a lot to be desired to come close to what this band once was.

Sum 41 is scheduled to release their new album 13 Voices on October 7.  I was a fan of their debut full length, All Killer No Filler, circa 2001 and some of their other stuff as well, but I felt that they sometimes suffered from identity crisis.  They didn't know if they wanted to be punk, metal, pop or all three.  I got left with a bad taste in my mouth after seeing them on Warped Tour in 2001 when Deryck Whibley was trying to sell the crowd on the idea that they were metalheads, even though they barely played metal and were at a punk festival when he is making these statements.  The new single Fake My Own Death is pretty hard rock and I like it a lot.  It will be interesting to hear what the rest of the album sounds like.  I'll be seeing them at Starland in October, so look for more on whether this is a successful comeback or a flop.