To not only be so relatively new to a scene that is now so quickly falling apart but also to so daringly hold the battle cry “Defend Pop Punk” close to your chest takes balls. The pop punk that Man Overboard is defending isn’t Fall Out Boy’s either. It’s the pop punk from 2001—the good ol’ days— and you won’t hear any of the past five years of the scene in Man Overboard’s Real Talk. Instead you’ll hear a collision of The Get Up Kids’s Something To Write Home About, Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity, and that band Man Overboard’s name undoubtedly comes from. Yes, this band that is not three years old was just compared to two of the greatest emo albums of all time and arguably the best pop punk of all time. This record just may go down as an all-time classic in the scene.
Real Talk starts off with the short but sweet title track while Zac Eiestenstein and Nik Bruzzese show just how effective their dual vocals can be as they trade off the lines “On paper, we are similar people // But we`re different people.” Eiestenstein has made comments that the album revolves around four girls, and the band wastes no time diving into their stories.
Continuing strongly, “Real Talk” blends into “World Favorite” and “Fantasy Girl”, which are two tracks that perfectly epitomize Man Overboard’s debut album. As the band never tries to write mind-blowing lyrics but instead lyrics that are catchy yet relatable with “Fantasy Girl”’s pop punk riff and lyrics “Just like a trap, everything just fell right back and we were on track.”
“Darkness, Everybody” is the perfect example of how simplicity works for Man Overboard as they place a catchy riff along with the line “There’s not enough fights I could lose to justify how I feel tonight”. “She’s Got Her Own Man” is one of Real Talk’s best as the band’s trade-off vocals work at their best to make one of the album’s catchiest song with the single line “She’s got her own man now.”
The best two-song combo on Real Talk is undoubtedly “Al Sharpton” and “Montrose” as the band shows their pop punk roots at their best. In “Al Sharpton” the lyrics “I pretend that I’m already someone and all my problems faded away” shine, while “Montrose” begins with the most infectious guitar riff that the album has to offer as Nik Bruzzese’s chilling voice dominates the song singing “Do you take pictures off the wall // When you know I’m coming to your room?”
“Septemberism” should become a concert favorite as the lyrics “I hate you // You should’ve picked up the phone tonight” are shouted out as the band tells the story of one of those four girls. Real Talk closes with the band’s most diverse song, “Sidekick”, which is an acoustic track with a calming piano part over it as they sing “I’d like to save the world // And you could be my sidekick // We could be untouchable”.
If Max Bemis hadn’t named Say Anything’s 2007 release In Defense Of The Genre then Man Overboard should have snagged that as their title now.
****.5/*****
