Mike

Save The Day

Written by: PP on 11/09/2008 03:05:56

Lately, Sweden has started becoming a real hotbed of quality punk rock of all styles, but especially the melodicore kind usually attributed to bands like No Use For A Name and others from the other side of the pond. Not only did Adjusted release what quite certainly will be my favorite punk rock release this year, but Mike's debut album "Save The Day" has spun well over a dozen times on my playlist in a very short time. This all on top of Atta's surprisingly brisk pop punk debut from last week. The Swedes have it bloody good for the time being.

On "Save The Day", Mike loosely reference a number of famous punk bands while still retaining enough originality in their sound to avoid copycat shouts from the dark shadows of the press corps. The simple (but extremely enjoyable) melodic chord-based punk rock from "Life On A Plate"-era Millencolin is revisited on more than a couple of tracks, while the melodicore of No Use For A Name and Adjusted is also paralleled occasionally. Heck, even the ska-influenced mid 90s NOFX gets touched on "Tiny's Tune".

Now, what all that means in practice is melodic chords all around, and a vocalist who sounds unequivocally like the Millencolin vocalist or the NUFAN vocalist, depending on what song is in question. "To All My Friends", for instance, could easily be on "Making Friends", if it wasn't for its great lyrics about friendship that remind me a great deal of "Letters To '99" by Adjusted. Not that this is a bad thing at all, considering how the prior often notice their name in connection with words like 'seminal' or 'classic'.

Occasionally, though, Mike treads on rather thin ice, as on "Razastan", which has a riff and a sound that's almost identical to the ones heard on Millencolin's classic track "Foxy". Fortunately, the rest of the album avoids that scenario altogether and focuses on delivering great quality songs, such as the best break up song I've ever heard, "I Hate To Break This To You But...", an absolutely hilarious track that simultaneously is one of the best ones on the CD.

Pretty much every song on "Save The Day" has infectious choruses, catchy, singalongable verses and an instrumental landscape guaranteed to give any melodic punk rock fan drooly lips from start to finish. That Mike sounds a lot like NUFAN on one song, even more like Millencolin on another and even brings in NOFX references isn't problematic at all, if you ask me. These are some of the best bands the punk rock scene has to offer, and since Mike is able to write an album's worth of great songs on par with the heavyweights, why not let them? With "Save The Day", Mike has undoubtedly made it on my list of great punk rock releases in 2008 - why on earth aren't they signed to Fat Wreck or Burning Heart already?!

8

Download: I Hate To Break This To You But..., Photos, To All My Friends
For the fans of: No Use For A Name, Adjusted, Millencolin
Listen: Myspace

Release date 22.03.2008
UNSIGNED BAND

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