To be perfectly honest, there isn’t really much point in reviewing Stay Gone’s new EP ‘Charades’, because doubtless you’ll have heard something a lot like it. With pop punk’s current lack of breathing room, it takes something truly special to make real waves, and while this French quintet don’t exactly offer that just yet, this EP is still a hugely enjoyable slice of what the genre has to offer.

Musically, their sound incorporates the more palatable elements of the genre, leaving out superfluous double-time drums and an over-surly attitude. As well as that though, there are also (somewhat fittingly) cues taken from fellow countrymen Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! that really benefit.

‘Kanan Road’s pleasantly understated breakdown doesn’t feel hackneyed at all, while ‘Wasted’ takes more than a page from C!NCC!’s playbook, especially from their powering melodic sections which sound positively life-affirming here.

There isn’t really a bad song on ‘Charades’. Stay Gone may have not reinvented the wheel whatsoever here, but in the likes of ‘Suitcase Cellar’, they show just how strong their melodic chops are, and how they’ve got more than a few great songs up their sleeves.

There’s always talk about how strong the modern day’s pop punk crop truly is. And with these five tracks, Stay Gone have provided a couple more reasons for why that couldn’t be more true.

4/5

‘Charades’ EP by Stay Gone is out now on No Panic! Records

Stay Gone links: Facebook|Bandcamp

Words by Luke Nuttall(@nuttall_luke)