The Presidents Of The United States Of America

These Are The Good Times People

Written by: PP on 20/03/2008 17:25:57

\"These Are The Good Times People\". The title of the comeback album by everyone\'s 90s pop rock favorites The Presidents Of The United States Of America describes the album\'s vibe well. Who doesn\'t remember singing along to millions of peaches on \"Peaches\", jumping along to the bouncy \"Blank Baby\", or enjoying the simple, but funny lyrics of \"Video Killed The Radio Star\"? Those were the massive radio hits of the mid 90s, popularized by beach-oriented individuals and surfers around the globe. The band\'s been a bit low key since then, releasing a few albums between then and 2004, but nothing as major as their debut album. Now they\'re back and they\'re as good as they ever were!

First track \"Mixed Up S.O.B\" outlines what\'s to come on the album perfectly. It\'s worry free, medium paced sound, that borrows equally much from surf rock as it does from pop punk, pushes all the right buttons for me. Its lyrics are silly, but so is the sound: oh-so-90s rock straight from the get go. Not that it\'s a bad thing at all, as balladsy songs like \"Ladybug\" showcase. Quite literally, it is a love song disguised underneath a story between a ladybug and a beetle. Complete with power choruses and repeated lines, it\'s sure to become a crowd favorite at their live shows. \"Sharpen Up Those Fangs\" takes a more laid back approach, thus fitting perfectly on a beautiful day at a beach somewhere in sunny Hawaii. So far, every song has been the very definition of the word \'enjoyable\'. Imagine \"Beer\"-era Reel Big Fish without the horn section. And we haven\'t even got to the highlights of the album yet.

\"More Bad Times\" is one of them. It\'s a song about a broken relationship that\'s at its best when the would-be boyfriend gets to help his crush: \"you twisted your ankle, I carried you, you got a divorce so I married you, you fell off a cliff so I buried you\". The irony in the lyrics is clever, but that\'s how it is everywhere on the album as well. \"French Girl\", my other favorite, is a slow-tempo song about the singer falling in love at a French girl who \"sees the world as a black place\". The lyrics are touching and memorable, and the chorus is one of the best this band has written to date.

Every song on the record is witty, and infectiously catchy simultaneously. At the same time, the pop/punk/surf sound is so purposefully overdone that it\'s impossible not to smile at the band, especially when they\'re singing about truckstop butterflies, ghosts and balloons that have escaped from their owners. While attempting to be poppier than pop, the band manages to re-open a dimension in their music (and the overall music scene) that has been missing since the mid 90s - a sound that\'s incomparably fun. The PUSA may be silly, but sometimes a silly approach works wonders in music, as in \"These Are The Good Times People\".

8

Download: French Girl, Sharpen Up Those Fangs, Mixed Up S.O.B, So Lo So Hi
For the fans of: Reel Big Fish, Sublime, Filter
Listen: Myspace
Buy: iTunes

Release date 11.03.2008
Fugitive Records

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