Bowling For Soup are a strange bunch. Not only do they possess the largest guitarist I have ever seen in Chris Van Malmsteen, but they’ve always threatened so much without ever delivering. Their last record looked as if it was set to go massive with the fantastic ‘The Bitch Song’, but for some reason the band missed out. This time they have come back bigger and better than ever, ready for an assault on the charts. But even now they seem to be having an identity crisis, with some Americans thinking that BFS are an English band…
So, with nothing ever simple for Jaret and company, the smash hit single for ‘Girl All The Bad Guys Want’ must have come as a bit of a surprise, even if the excellent video certainly helped it on its way. So, with the release of newie ‘Drunk Enough To Dance’, will this propel the Texan nutters into punk’s premier league, or again see them as the first division nearly men? Well, they most probably will be the former, as the likes of the band’s first single from the record has shown – but the truth is, on the basis of this record, they probably don’t deserve to be.
The album gets off to a scorching start with ‘I Don’t Wanna Rock’ and the fantastic second single ‘Emily’. Sure to become an anthem for every girl called Emily across the world, it’s exactly what Bowling For Soup do best – write highly amusing pop-punk songs, laden with hooky choruses. And this track in particular is as good as ‘Drunk Enough To Dance’ gets. Then of course there’s the smash hit ‘Girl All The Bad Guys Want’ which it has become impossible to avoid over the past three months. Still, as catchy a song as you’ll hear all year, it’s won the Texans a barrage of new fans which can only be a good thing. One of the greatest singalong tracks you’ll hear this year.
But things go a bit wayward and inconsistent from here on in. ‘On and On (About You)’ has a great riff but lacks a certain kick, and ‘Surf Colorado’ is nothing out of the ordinary either. Neither are bad songs by any means, but it’s just predictable pop-punk fare that has been seen and heard too many times before. ‘Life After Lisa’ even sounds like the Smashing Pumpkins crossed with Sum 41 – if that is at all possible. It’s a botched style that sacks off the BFS identity for a more predictable identikit pop-punk sound and this will undoubtedly work for mass consumption. ‘Where To Begin’ is a dull radio-friendly ballad, so it’s good to see the rocking ‘The Last Rock Show’ come blaring out of the speakers. And the revival continues with the awesome ‘Self-Centered’ which highlights everything that the band are good for.
‘The Hard Way’ is an improvement too and the crunching riff of ‘Out The Window’ makes the track better than average. The tempo is raised a notch further with ‘Cold Shower Tuesdays’, a track with threatens brilliance but never quite delivers. ‘Running From Your Dad’ steals the vocal melodies from the 60s pop track ‘Runaway’, and complete with ‘la la’s’ takes things to the maximum cheese factor possible. ‘Scaring Myself’ is a good song however, but the lyrical rip-off of ‘She’s Got A Boyfriend’ is a bit crap. Way too similar to the Reel Big Fish track of a similar name, BFS don’t need to sink this low.
In fairness this isn’t a bad record, it just doesn’t really stand out from the pack all that much. Some of the tracks here are awesome and the BFS that we have come to love. But some of the others are a bit stale and dull, which leaves you scratching your head thinking how they can be so good and so poor within the space of the same album. Still, your younger brother or sister is sure to love it, and we all know how good this lot are live. Drunk enough to dance? Well BFS are more like the ‘cool’ Uncle at a weddig showing off his best moves than a well-oiled groove machine. It’s good for a laugh but you can’t take it too seriously…
Paul