When a band chooses to start operating in the rapturous realm of pop-punk, eventually they'll be presented with a choice: they can either crash and burn in spectacular fashion and spend the rest of their careers trying to make back the ground they've lost (see The Offspring), they can knickle under and become vacuous pop tarts (see No Doubt) or they can tough up, bite the bullet and become a rock n' roll band (see Green Day). While exceptions have existed over the last twenty years, they have been few and far between (how many Bad Religions or NoFXs are there in the world? One of each – and there's a good reason for that), there are no guarantees of success (again, there's only one Bad Religion and one NoFX for a reason) and so it's always treacherous – but it's a choice every band needs to make. It's the choice that illScarlett faces now, in fact, but unlike those other bands that have rolled the dice and jumped in headlong, illScarlett has turned that decision-making process into a long-player and called it 1Up!.
For the dozen tracks that comprise 1Up!, illScarlett darts back and forth between ever-more muscular and groove-conscious reggae (read: more authoritative and less nervous than the band has been previously) as well as a barn-burning and swaggering permutation of rock that leans more on 'punk' than 'pop.' While one could easily assume that such a polarized division of sounds would come off as scattered when stacked onto a single release, in the case of 1Up! it mixes startlingly well. While the gaffes that one might expect to find in a primarily growth-centered release are present (“Milkshakes & Razorblades,” “Freezing” and “Nothing Once Again” are fairly rudderless and fumble to find a groove), the mixtures of more rough, ready and mature punk and mid-tempo reggae rhythms (less ska, more reggae) fall together solidly more often than they don't. In songs like “Take It For Granted,” “Extra! Extra!,” “Get Famous” and the title track partciularly, illScarlett knits together a tight synthesis of rigid rock and slippery roots reggae (both far harder than punk and ska, and the combination is harder to establish) with ease while singer Alex Norman steps up and makes the harder edges mesh well with a more aggressive and boisterous vocalese.
So, with 1Up!, the die is cast and decision made: the band is turning quickly toward rock but, happily, they're doing it on their own terms and there will definitely be more to come. 1Up! is good, but it's obvious in listening that illScarlett has not yet reached the pinnacle of its powers. 1Up! is indeed a great display of how much the band has grown but, even as it plays, the gaps in the design are evident and leave the salacious promise that the band is still on its way up; the next record will fill those gaps and be an even stronger effort. 1Up! might be a half-step record in that way, sure – but it's an important one and generates excitement without even trying.
Artist:
www.illscarlett.com/
www.myspace.com/illscarlett
Download:
illScarlett – '1Up!' – 1Up!
Album:
1Up! is out now and available as a Canadian import. Buy it on Amazon .
