By John Bedard
Good pop punk is very rare these days. Gone are the golden days of Blink-182 or My Chemical Romance, or All Time Low. The bands from back then that are still making music have drifted too far to the pop in pop-punk and have lost what made the genre so good. I had just written off the genre these days assuming it would not live up to the nostalgia ever again. Then I put this album on – and it is everything that I thought would never be coming back. It sent me down a rabbit hole of memories. I began comparing every track to the classics I loved. Probably to a standard that would be unfair to hold any artist too. My love of pop-punk comes from a very emotional place so nothing less than perfection will do. Chief State, with ‘Tough Love’, passes that standard with flying colours and would fit right in next to every album I loved growing up.
The vocals are perfectly suited for pop-punk. We have that shouted screamed vocals with a slight breakup on the end of the word giving that unmistakable early 2000’s pop-punk tone. The lyrics manage to stay within the theme of the genre without having to constantly rely on references to high school. This makes the music a lot more timeless while a lot in the genre, even great songs, end up stuck just because the subject matter is set to a time in your life. By skipping that trope this becomes a much more approachable album or a love letter to the people who listened then but are adults now yet still want what they had.
What can I say about the music that is not implied above? It’s perfect. It is exactly what you would want and expect for the genre. Somewhat fast drumbeats but not overdone it does not fall into being pseudo metal but instead is grounded in the classic pop-punk style. Same with the guitar. There is tight distortion and a lot of power cords with nice leads over the top. It remains subtly complicated while also being simple enough to let the vocals shout through.
This album was more than I could have expected or even wanted. My only complaint is that it is not longer. If you ever went through a pop-punk phase or if you are like me and never grew out of that phase this is a must buy. It is hard not to love this album. It will bring you down memory lane for sure and it will live up to those memories. Let’s hope this is the start of a resurgence of one of my favorite genres.
- ‘Tough Love’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
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