I (Zack) stopped writing reviews for the site in the fall of 2011, and have had no true desire to start again; frankly, we have better people for that. I obviously do enjoy writing about music though, and have had the urge over the past few months to give my thoughts on albums once again: just not in typical review form.
Here and there, we’re going to be posting my First Impressions of new albums that have yet to come out, hopefully to stir up a little more attention to the releases we’re all looking forward to. We’ll start with Man Overboard, Misser, and The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die and see where that takes us. Check out First Impressions below!
Man Overboard - Heart Attack (5/28)
Like I wrote in the Discussion for our Most Anticipated May Releases, timing is everything. Watching Man Overboard grow since 2010 — with the quick bang of pop-punk, an unexpected signing to the most bashed label in our scene, huge tours with New Found Glory, Taking Back Sunday, and soon to be back to back runs on the Vans Warped Tour — has been interesting.
It doesn’t take long to realize that Heart Attack is nothing like Real Talk or the self-titled, and that’s a good thing. The album can feel long at 14 songs, but there’s something for everyone.
Tracks like “S.A.D” and “Hoodie Song” are going to leverage “heavier” fans to find their soft spots for pop-punk again, while “Where I Left You” and “How To Hide Your Feelings” show the band’s best instrumental work and are bound to hit hard on summer and fall drives.
The record comes down to “Wide Awake” for me. I’m going to go ahead and crown it the song of the year for Tumblr’s pop-punk community. I can see the lyric .gifs, sad quotes, and expressions of teen love from a mile away, and that’s going to be big for the band. Think “Love Your Friends, Die Laughing” meets “Soco Amaretto Lime” meets “Your Own Disaster.”
I think the success or failure of Heart Attack will be known instantly. This is Man Overboard’s chance for their music and audience to grow to match or surpass the size of their brand.Pre-order Heart Attack here.
Misser - Distancing (5/28)
I think it’s fair to say that I’ve been a little bullish on Misser since the release of Problems. Problems. Problems. in 2011. It was hard to tell if the band would stay a side-project in feeling, or turn into more of a real band with heart.
Every Day I Tell Myself I’m Going To Be A Better Person proved Misser was a band with heart, and that definitely made most fans happy. Distancing came as a surprise, considering how none of us knew when we’d be getting more material from the band. Surprises are good things.
“Goddamn, Salad Days” is a song that just fucking rips. It feels like Taking Back Sunday from a different era, but angrier, less sad, and littered with Tim Landers’ best guitar work. The other songs on the EP are all good, but I’m mostly interested in where the solidifying of the Misser name will take us.
Misser can only grow on the Internet for now, considering the band has limited touring abilities, but I’d expect that to change with time. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I think Misser will slowly overtake much of Transit’s fan base and outgrow the band in ways similar to what we saw with City And Colour and Alexisonfire. For now, I’d imagine we’ll get scattered releases here and there until the light switch flicks on for good.Pre-order Distancing here.
The World Is A Beautiful Place - Whenever, If Ever (6/18)
