Later this month rising Manchester pop-punks Best Years release their new EP – ‘Drop Out’. With a growing UK scene, Best Years are making a good go at it as the EP includes three slices of booming pop-punk that sees them join a group of promising acts.
“The title is meant as an encouragement for people to drop out of boring routines and start afresh doing something they love, to chase their dreams.” says vocalist Joel Plews.
It’s no doubt Best Years are a tight-knit collective with potential. ‘Drop Out’ is loaded with positive melodies and hooks. Ahead of its release on August 28th, Joel gave us a track-track breakdown of ‘Drop Out’.
1) Built to Last
‘Built to Last’ is the experimental tune, it’s a train wreck, but it’s catchy as hell and has a guitar solo that The Darkness would be proud of. Structurally and musically it’s like nothing we’ve ever attempted before: it’s very poppy and has some totally cringe worthy moments that when we listen back to them, we’re all kind of a bit on edge and saying to each other “I still can’t believe we’ve done this”. But we’re hoping it’s going to pay off and people are going to enjoy having something a bit different from us! Also, yes, it is a break up song so who knows, this might just be our number 1 hit.
2) Overrated
‘Overrated’is now and will be for the foreseeable future “the Best Years” song; it’s our lead single and we’ve got to live by it and die by it. The main riff was written by James on the toilet at university… so there’s that which is an interesting piece of trivia for you! We kind of feel like it’s the most commercial sounding song we’ve ever written, but we feel like it’s also got a bit of attitude in there, both in terms of the instruments and the melodies/lyrics. The meaning behind the song is more or less self-explanatory, as are pretty much all of our songs, we get straight to the point (probably because we don’t know very many big words). But if you must know, it’s just a song about people who have a sense of entitlement or have a rich family that they exploit, and in turn that doesn’t prepare them for reality and what’s actually out there… “Overrated, golden painted, college drop-out” is probably the best case in point from that song.
3) Back Then
‘Back Then’ is the arena anthem (or so we like to think), the ‘woah’s’ over the final chorus is our self-proclaimed one way ticket to a headline slot at Wembley and the chorus will stick in your head for days. It was the first song we wrote for the new EP and it really is polished and perfected, both live and on record, as we know it so well. It’s kind of a middle ground between the other two tracks on the EP and the track we’re going to be shooting a live video for on our tour with WSTR next month! Lyrically the song is again, pretty self-explanatory, but it’s specifically aimed at any of our fans who are stuck at home. Those still at college/working/in a band/whatever, whilst all their friends they’ve known throughout high school/college are away at university. Very pop punk, an anthem for missing your friends…
‘Drop Out’ EP by Best Years is released on 28th August on Dream Atlantic Records.
Best Years links: Facebook|Twitter|Tumblr
September (with WSTR)
8th Live Rooms, Chester
9th Rainbow Rooms, Birmingham
10th Bostom Music Rooms, London
11th The Exchange, Bristol
12th The Garage Attic, Glasgow
13th The Hop, Sheffield
14th The Underground, Stoke
