Hopeless wonders, THE WONDER YEARS have taken a strong step upwards from ‘Upsides’ with third full length ‘Suburbia I’ve Given You All And Now I’m Nothing’ – get your gang voice at the ready, this is the album all you pop-punkers have been waiting for.
The Wonder Years barely leave time to think before their surging pop-punk riot blasts off. ‘Came Out Swinging’ opens the record and from then, a kind of nomadic nostalgia unravels song by song. Lyrically drawing directly off life on the road and the trials and tribulations that lie therein, ‘Local Man Ruins Everything’ acts as the battle cry of the inner turmoil of our forced role models; embodied completely in the line ‘I’m not a self help book I’m just a fucked up kid’.
The PA natives draw on influence from path laying pioneers The Ataris, New Found Glory and Four Year Strong without losing that accent that makes The Wonder Years, The Wonder Years. Stalwarts of their scene, and a mere three albums in, it seems the sextet has finally found their own voice – even if took unrelenting positivity and women’s hosiery to get there.
‘Suburbia…’ doesn’t need to battle its way into you record collection; the hooks, sing-alongs and hi-fi bounce being the key ingredients in any pop-rock record. Refreshing down-in-the-mouth realism in a genre so often seasoned with unnaturally sunny spells, The Wonder Years‘ sweet ‘n low snack cuts the fat in delivering a searingly honest third effort.
JESSICA ACREMAN