Welcome to ‘The World According To Gob‘. Please leave your angsty hardcore ramblings, whiny emo records and your street punk sensibilities at the door, and enter into a melody fused existence courtesy of the Langley, British Columbia based melodic punk quartet, Gob.
Now lets get this out of the way before I go any further. If you are the type of person that believes all punk records should sound like they were recorded in somebody’s garage on a four track, and all punk songs should be under two minutes and have snarling, rasping vocals continuously throughout, leave now. Not that I am slating anyone in particular, but if you’re so elitist you can’t see past the end of your own nose, then Gob are unlikely to be the band for you.
Saying that, the band have even been slated over the release of this record by their own fans, with many of their detractors saying they have completely changed their sound, from a NOFX / Screeching Weasel hybrid to the harmonious, clean cut Gob of today. I have had little experience of them before this record, unfortunately, so I can’t really comment on this, although from what I have heard of their earlier work, this isn’t that much of a gear shift.
A slightly trippy guitar opening soon explodes into ‘For The Moment’ and we are off on a magical, melodic journey through the world of Gob. Breakthrough single ‘I Hear You Calling’ is up next. Having heard this on an NHL game on the Playstation, I’m assuming it was quite a big hit in the States, and I can see why. A chugging guitar riff and note perfect chorus make this one of the stand out tracks on the record.
An almost tribal drum beat heralds the introduction of ‘No Regrets’ and it quickly kicks into a fast paced sing-a-long which Gob repeat throughout this record. ‘That’s The Way’ and it’s bouncing chorus, ‘Everyone Pushed Down’ with it’s dual vocals and ‘ba-ba-ba’s throughout and the heartfelt lyrics on ‘Desktop Breaking’ all make sure that the songs on this record aren’t going to be leaving the confines of your brain anytime soon.
The measured ‘Sleepyhead’, with the chorus of ‘I had a dream inside a dream / I woke so many times I don’t know if I’m awake’ followed by the rather disturbing ‘Jam the forceps in my eyes‘ and mysterious backing whispers is a change of pace for the band. This is immediately followed by the crunching ‘Ex-Shuffle’, which, along with ‘Looking For California’, shows a slightly grittier side to the band.
The climax of the introspective yet unnervingly compelling ‘The Perfect Remedy’ is a perfect end to the record. It begins slowly, gathers a pace, which it somehow manages to maintain throughout the song, and cuts out before you start to get bored of it. The hidden track, a fantastically bizarre Latin instrumental, seemingly played the courtyard of an Italian restaurant, is a pointless, but comical end to it all.
‘The World According To Gob‘ is a strange one. Not necessarily to everyone’s taste, it is pop punk at its best. Its emotional, thoughtful, original and seems to hide a bubbling vat of angst underneath it’s surface. Probably not the bands best work to date, and unlikely to change your perspective on life, it is, however, a highly enjoyable journey through the mind of these Canadian punksters and you could do a lot worse than to pick this up when you next go record shopping. Like buying the new Guttermouth album ….
Ross