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)
