Atlantic Avenue

When The Lights Go Down

Written by: PP on 06/11/2012 21:42:19

There was a time not so long ago when literally every second release in my mailbox was by a pop punk band that sounded no different from its predecessor, all hoping to cash in on the enormous collective success by Cartel's "Chroma", Fall Out Boy's "Take This To Your Grave", and Hit The Lights' "This Is A Stickup...". These were all released close enough to each other to set fire to a wave of young kids wanting to form bands just like them, and as such the genre experienced an incredibly sudden and suffocating supersaturation in the couple of years that followed. This, of course, was part of the reason why bands like Man Overboard and The Wonder Years formed in reaction to the polished and clean pop punk scene, to 'take back the scene' and to ensure punk was again the core element in the genre title.

Music trends typically move in waves like these, so it's been a while since we've heard a proper clean-cut pop punk band release a no-bullshit record that cherishes the pop element far more than the punk one without unnecessarily embellishing their sound. And here's where Atlantic Avenue come in with their debut album "When The Lights Go Down". It's about as clean and polished as pop punk comes, with everything recorded to pitch-perfection, complete with anthemic, poppy choruses, simplistic instrumentation, and lyrics focused around relationships. So on paper it sounds like your standard derivative pop punk release copying the Fall Out Boy wave of pop punk bands, and to an extent that definition is exactly right.

But what the description doesn't tell you is that Atlantic Avenue play their style with a youthful spirit and with the kind of melodic energy that defies their otherwise wholly unoriginal sound platform. They make it no secret that they're playing poppy pop punk in the vein of all the bands mentioned here (as well as Yellowcard, Amber Pacific etc), and at no point does it feel like the band are just posers like, for example, The Maine or Simple Plan. Songs like "This I Know" are hook-laden and feature strong vocal harmonies that should serve to remind you what you liked about "Take This To Your Grave" in the first place. They are simply maddeningly catchy, especially on the second half of the album, so even though I feel like this type of pop punk is, err, sooo 2006, I have to admit that Atlantic Avenue do a pretty good job at re-creating the same vibe in 2012.

Download: Nicole, Make This Count, This I Know
For the fans of: Fall Out Boy, Hit The Lights, Cartel, Amber Pacific, Mayday Parade
Listen: Facebook

Release date 03.07.2012
Eulogy Records

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