Some things are just beyond comprehension – no matter how open-minded or understanding you try to be. Are you skeptical? Here are some examples of questions that have no easy answer:
“How is it that there are throwbacks in evolutionary development like the platypus?”
“How – in spite of flagging ratings – does Donald Trump's The Apprentice remain on network television?”
“How did it come to pass that Sing It Loud found itself signed to Epitaph Records?”
Each of these is a question for the ages.
Maybe that last one about Sing It Loud is judgemental and elitist though. The truth is that Sing It Loud isn't a bad band per se, they just do not fit in with the rest of Epitaph's roster of talent at all. Epitaph is a punk label and while pop-punk bands have crossed their threshold before and even thrived with the label's support, Sing It Loud represents the very first more-pop-than-punk bans to call Epitaph home. Even more incredibly, while the band's debut album released in 2008 may have been regarded as a fluke, Everything Collide (Sing It Loud's sophomore full-length) finds them thriving, cutting their own way and even growing in their unlikely confines.
As the impeccably named “Sugar Sweet” opens the record bearing bags of saccharine-sweetened melodies, Top 40 pop hooks (not unlike those that you hear bands playing on The Family Channel, actually) and incredibly clean and (com)pressed guitar tones, the first instinct for some listeners (the punk purists) will be to recoil in horror because, defying probability, Sing It Loud has actually gotten sweeter with age, somehow. Singer/guitarist Pat Brown has actually grown into his role as the pop-punk heartthrob that anyone who heard Come Around [the band's debut –ed] suspected he might become, and his band has managed to further polish their plastic shell (not unlike the one Third Eye Blind used to sport) as well as refine the sugar in their hooks. Because of that, Sing It Loud doesn't need to earnestly reach for listeners to grab them; at the right age, legions of fans will walk right up to them and ask innocently for more.
The sweet succoring continues through songs like “Here With You,” “Addicted To When You're Gone” and “Light It Up" as, without bothering to progress in any particular direction, Sing It Loud just unloads dew-eyed and emotionally articulate songs that will appeal to everyone's little sister. As soon as you realize that, you'll start listening closer too because anyone trying to make a play for your sister deserves a close and watchful eye. So you look closer and realize that the nearest thing to a punk rock sentiment on Everything Collide is the “As I lay in the back/all the pills and the Jack/can't keep you away from me,” but you're already sunk. While it may make you feel a little dirty, you're unable to find any reason to violently dislike Sing It Loud, and you're hooked; it's soft enough it's soft enough to appeal to your perky little sister and not quite poppy enough to make you want to hurl, so Everything Collide will probably get a lot of play on family road trips. Sing It Loud discovered that niche on Come Around, but they've developed it here on Everything Collide into a very strong foothold. It'll still be a while before the band grows enough to pose a legitimate threat to every Epitaph fan's way of life, but they're on their way….
Artist:
www.singitloud.com
www.myspace.com/singitloud
Album:
Everything Collide is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
