Minutes To Recover, a five-piece pop punk band from Manchester, have released their first full length album ‘Top To Tale’. With thirteen tracks, this album gives you a wide range of what the band is capable of.
Right from the start the band hits you with very classic punk-pop in ‘Stereo Hype’, full of “whoa-ohs” and punchy drums. This is what you would expect from a band touting themselves as punk pop and there are quite a few tracks that follow this vein, like ‘Life’s a Party’ and ‘Rum Diaries’. With these typical, expected tracks, you also get typical, expected themes: going out drinking and screwing up, being your own worst enemy, and being the band no one thought could make it.
Minutes To Recover, a five-piece pop punk band from Manchester, have released their first full length album ‘Top To Tale’. With thirteen tracks, this album gives you a wide range of what the band is capable of.
Right from the start the band hits you with very classic punk-pop in ‘Stereo Hype’, full of “whoa-ohs” and punchy drums. This is what you would expect from a band touting themselves as punk pop and there are quite a few tracks that follow this vein, like ‘Life’s a Party’ and ‘Rum Diaries’. With these typical, expected tracks, you also get typical, expected themes: going out drinking and screwing up, being your own worst enemy, and being the band no one thought could make it.
These tired themes go hand-in-hand with contrived lyrics that make the band seem very young, such as on ‘Minutes to Recover’, “This party’s never stopping, let’s keep this club popping. Count down to our show, we’ll show you how we roll”. This rhyme-every-line thing is featured in many songs, and while sometimes it works for the band, other times it makes them seem very inexperienced and immature.
However, there are some very creative and interesting moments in ‘Top To Tale’. ‘Itching For A Comeback,’ is an edgier, fresher song with much more rock than pop. Lead singer Benn McHugh showcases a soulful, dramatic side of his usually saccharine, expected voice. There are many heavier elements, like screaming in the backing vocals and chugging guitars. This song has more substance and shows the band’s talent in a way that the other songs fail to. ‘Walk Out’ and ‘Outside Of Sleep’ also have an unexpected edge, breaking free of the formula for songwriting this band seems to favor.
While for the most part this is a pop-punk album, the sheer number of songs fails to give it a coherent sound. ‘Left No Memories’ and ‘Running Home Empty’ are slow and dramatic ballad-like songs that don’t mix well with the sound established by the more similar songs. At the same time, though, the edgier, break-out songs mentioned in the above paragraph are also very atypical and much better than the majority of the pop-punk fueled tracks. Minutes to Recover chose a few too many songs to put on their debut full-length. The sound is all over the place, making it seem like an amateur release and it is clear this band hasn’t honed-in on exactly what kind of band they want to be.
2.5/5
‘Top To Tale’ by Minutes To Recover is out now on Banter Music.
Minutes To Recover links: Website|Facebook
Words by Jenny Gagas (@Jenny_herself)
