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FIVES: THE BEST WONDER YEARS SONGSThis week Lansdale, Pennsylvania’s The Wonder Years released their fourth album - ‘The Greatest Generation,’ a record that sees the pop punk quintet reach their creative peak in a number of ways. With a wealth of material in their discography, Already Heard's Sean Reid and Tom Knott took on the tricky task of picking out the five best songs from The Wonder Years. Find out what we picked and let us know if you agree or disagree?
INTERVIEW: MALLORY KNOXFollowing the release of their superb 'Signals' album, Mallory Knox have certainly become ones to watch in recent months. We caught up with the band to discuss joining Search & Destroy Records, how vital the festival season and touring are, what it feels like to be a part
of the expanding British rock scene and much more.
ALREADY HEARD RECOMMENDS: OVER THE OCEANOver The Ocean have crafted a compelling, brooding record with their latest effort ‘Be Given To The Soil.’ With intense specific precision and delicate accuracy that echoes the likes of Explosions In The Sky and Sigur Ros. Jesse Hill from the band to discusses how the
album came together, the importance of precision, being compared to post-rock pioneers and more.
VERSUS: BRING ME THE HORIZON - 'THERE IS A HELL...' VS 'SEMPITERNAL'After a top ten UK album and an outstanding UK tour with festival dates on both sides of the Atlantic to follow, Bring Me The Horizon are having a fantastic 2013 and are now featured in the latest edition of "Versus." It's ‘There is a Hell, Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There is a Heaven, Let’s Keep it a Secret’ vs the bands latest release, 'Sempiternal.'
ALREADY HEARD TRACK GUIDE: ALEXANDER - SAY HELLOWe catch up with Newcastle Indie Rock quartet Alexander to find out more about their debut album 'Say Hello' for a “Already Heard Track Guide” feature.
INTERVIEW: TITLE FIGHTHaving briefly returned to the UK for the Hit The Deck Festival before starting a European
tour, we caught up with vocalist/bassist Ned Russin to discuss the bands progression in sound, differences between UK and US festivals, their recent split with Touché Amoré,
having friends on tour and more.
Album Review: I Call Fives - I Call Fives
New Jersey based pop-punkers I Call Fives have been slowly infecting people’s eardrums for a while now but this is their first proper album. It’s self-titled and it’s no doubt going to win them a lot more converts to their melodic, radio-friendly pop-punk sound.
Kicking off the record is ‘Late Nights,’ tackling the familiar pop-punk topic of break-ups. Bitter lyrics wrapped in sugary sweet guitars á la Kids In Glass Houses characterise the song, with vocals akin to Boys Like Girls or Mayday Parade. There is a refinement to I Call Fives that few pop-punk bands have, although they tread common ground for the genre with spiteful refrains like “I’m not sorry for a word I said” in ‘The Fall Guy’ these seem wholly appropriate, cathartic and good fun too.
‘Stuck in ‘03’ acknowledges their influences more explicitly as Fall Out Boy’s seminal album Take This To Your Grave is name-checked. There are both lyrical and musical similarities between I Call Fives and Fall Out Boy, but rather than being stuck in 2003 like the song suggests, the band manage to update and refresh the sound that Fall Out Boy pioneered.
An impressive debut is capped off with ‘Sleep Well,’ another slice of catchy and light-hearted pop-punk in the vein of The Story So Far and in my opinion an album highlight. With songs of this magnitude, and an ever-growing fan base, I Call Fives are on an upward trajectory. Their brand of music is very popular at the moment and there is a sense that this album could be the start of something very big indeed.
This is a neat album of punchy pop-punk songs. I Call Fives tick all the boxes generically, but do so with such eloquence it makes this album worth taking a look at. Though they will not be to everybody’s taste, they sit comfortably in the higher end of an overcrowded pop-punk market. Charming and persuasive music.
4/5
‘I Call Fives’ by I Call Fives is out now on Pure Noise Records.
I Call Fives links: Website|Facebook|Twitter
Words by Tom White (@whiteywitters)
