Thursday 22 March 2012

Review: Collision - Four Songs With James Singing

Track Listing:
1. Tiebreaker
2. Logan to Seasonal Depression
3. Bachelor's Degree In...
4. Rivers Cuomo Was Right

I’ll cop to feeling pretty out of touch with a lot of what goes on in the realm of pop punk these days. I don’t mean to say that it’s bad per se, just that it doesn’t really square with the stuff I remember from back in my day. “My day,” in this case, was the 90’s.

Fortunately, the guys in Boston’s Collision appear to have a similar affection for the days of my youth. At least for the posi jumps/gang vocals/skateboard parts anyways.

I wouldn’t presume to guess how old these dudes are or what they grew up listening to. But when I throw on this tape I’m reminded of everyone from Saves the Day to Blink 182 (before they got weird) to Pulley. It’s not that they sound that much like any of those bands. But the four songs on this demo wouldn’t have sounded out of place on a comp featuring all those people, that I paid 4$ for in 1997.

This tape blows through four songs in about 7 minutes so it never has a chance to overstay its welcome. The lyrics are pretty standard fare for the genre, but the delivery is so tight that it hardly matters. I do want to give specific props to “Bachelor’s Degree In…” That song has a borderline Cheshire Cat/Dude Ranch vibe to it that wormed its way into my head something fierce.

As far demos go, this one is pretty goddamn impressive. The sound is clean but not polished enough to take the raw edge off. It’s the sort of tape that they could press into a 7” as is and I would buy the hell out of it. Especially if they kept the Bill Murray cover art.

If you dig fast, melodic and catchy punk records, this is band you need to check out. Collision is legitimately a pop punk band. Not just a slightly faster emo band. Not a pop group with guitars. Not a breakdown obsessed hardcore band with singing parts. There’s a place for all of those things, but the 17 year old punk in me is happy that there are bands out there still doing stuff like this.



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