Step back in time with me to land where watching Kerrang TV was considered a great way to find new bands, when pop-punk was uber cool and where sweat bands were all the rage – that’s right, it’s 2001 all over again ladies and gentlemen. Although this might seem ridiculous to some, “All killer, no filler” certainly shaped the musical landscapes for a lot of youngsters and for others they hammered home the foundations that scene stalwarts Green Day, Blink-182 and New Found Glory had previously planted. It was an album crammed full of infectious tracks and massive hooks but still paying homage to their metal heroes (especially on “Pain for pleasure”) and this propelled them into the pop limelight. Then followed the more horrified “Does this look infected?” and the hard hitting “Chuck” – but the band seemed to have lost their way and had certainly lost many of the fans that filled the countries largest arenas back in 2003. After a bit of downtime, which saw Deryck marrying fellow Canadian Avril Lavigne and guitarist Dave leaving the band, Sum 41 have returned and many are touting fifth album “Underclass Hero” as a long awaited return to form.
Lead single “Underclass hero” certainly harks back to the “Fat Lip” days and it’s refreshing to hear that the band are still capable of penning a catchy tune, even if it is essentially nothing new. That seems to be the major point of note from this album – it seems to draw much inspiration from earlier Green Day and Blink-182 efforts. However that shouldn’t over shadow an album that shows many of the familiar Sum 41 hallmarks – the over reliance on Deryck’s vocals, the simple but effective song structures, and the ability to occasionally dip slightly further into their “Learning to play pop-punk chords on guitar” handbooks. One noticeable difference though is the lack of metal guitar solos we’ve heard them bust out on a number of previous tracks and you have to think this is down to Dave leaving the band. Whether that’s a good thing or not remains to be seen though – as that did slightly set them apart from similar pop-punk bands of their era at times. “Walking disaster” starts slowly and you briefly think that the band have mellowed on us, but before long it’s hitting home nicely and this is then backed up by potential single “Speak of the devil”. It’s a dated approach in truth but I’m relieved to hear it and every once in a while we all need a bit of nostalgia in our lives. Listen a little further into this album and you’ll also find very good tracks in “Count your last blessing” and “The Jester” – which both take a few moments to get going but eventually come up trumps.
However consistency is certainly an issue on this album and lackluster tracks such as “Dear Father”, “Best of Me” and “So Long Goodbye” don’t help the overall impact of this album. Sixth track “Ma Poubelle” is an interesting effort, sung in French, but it doesn’t add anything to the album and one hopes that Wikipedia is correct in proclaiming this to be a joke song written by drummer Steve. A perfect example, if it was ever needed, that drummers should stick to drumming! The over riding political theme to the lyrics, “a jester of sorts, you stand holding your courts, over minions at Capitol hill” as one example, doesn’t really inspire me to fight against world leaders and class cultures.
So is this a return to form for the band? In short, no it isn’t. It’s a solid album and one which reminds us that Sum 41 were once a band capable of selling out arenas and encouraging kids to rock out, but it’s not going to shape another pop-punk wave and they certainly aren’t going to take over the reigns from Green Day any time soon.
Tom