By DJ Monk
In a world dominated by social media, dominated by a small minority who seem to spend an enormous amount of time living up to the moniker adopted by these young Texan pop punks, it is refreshing to come across something as inoffensive as this debut five-track EP. It is a refreshing change indeed.
By way of a bit of background, ObE were formed in Dallas in 2017 when guitarist Jarrett Adlof met vocalist Zak Howe, later adding bassist Andrew Zempke and drummer Josh Sparkowich. In their short career to date they have already supported the likes of Escape the Fate, In Her Own Words and Like Pacific. They’ve also developed a reputation for engaging with their fans over social media, which has helped them to accumulate more than 100,000 streams on Spotify.
So, that’s the context out of the way: what do they sound like? Well, as I said, it’s inoffensive pop punk. I mean that in that it doesn’t grind your ears, or your gears for that matter, and the band do not use their music to unleash political diatribes about the state of the world as we know it today. Instead, they have concentrated on bringing us five bright and breezy, energetic pop punk tunes which combine the old and nu schools of the genre.
Opener ‘Deadweight’ is one of those catchy little ditties that you find on those ‘Top 100 Anthems’ programmes on a certain cable television channel, bringing with a message of hope arising from despair, as Howe recalls how much time he spent “swallowing my pride with the cheapest alcohol I could lay my hands on” in the rapped interlude that precedes the brief solo. In a similar vein, ‘I’m Gone’ is a prime example of the band merging the two ages of pop punk, reminding of the likes of All Time Low as much as it does Sum 41 et al, while lead single ‘You Call It Normal, I Call it Monotony’ is another vibrant slice of radio (and cable TV)-friendly power pop, with a neat hook and the necessary amount of faux anger in Howe’s semi-shouted delivery.
The EP’s title track sees them mellow out in the best Green Day tradition of slowing things down with an acoustic number: like most songs in this genre, the lyrics are a bit passe to these middle-aged ears – I mean “every word I wrote was written for you”: pass the vomit bucket, please! Still, it’s a pleasant little ditty, served up before ‘The First Time’ rounds things off in energetic style, possessing the heaviest riff in this particular section of ObE’s musical armoury.
As I said, this is an inoffensive little EP, and also a positive statement of intent from a young band who are clearly intent on making their mark in the big bad world of the music business. Well, if they keep on doing what they do, they never know what might happen – but I reckon it won’t be too long before you see them on one of those ‘Anthems’ programmes…
- ‘Evergreen’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
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