The Front Bottoms make the kind of music that teenage me would worship. They have great melodies, but their vocalist is so raw and the lyrics feature the kind of stream of conscious sadness that made all of those late nineties Emo bands like Sunny Day Real Estate so great.
Their latest album, Back On Top is a perfect example of this sound, and while this album signals a bit of a direction change for the band, I still found a lot to love. But what exactly has changed? Well, for starters, the band has moved to a major label, Fueled by Ramen, who usually is a huge red flag in my book at least (I find a lot of music that comes from that label to just be horrid) and the band is focusing less on acoustic instrumentation and more on power-pop guitars that kinda sound like Pinkerton-era Weezer.
The best examples of this new sound come in the form of the opener "Motorcycle" which kicks the album off in glorious fashion with not only a catchy refrain,"Sometimes you've gotta close your eyes to really see the light" but also has a fantastic lead guitar melody that harmonizes with the rhythm guitar beautifully. And the tracks "HELP" and "Laugh til' I Cry" both have fantastic hooks as well. This is the kind of stuff that gets the young, all black wearing me excited and ready for a bedroom headbanging session.
However, while most the the material here is top-notch, there are a few cuts that could have been better, or at least presented in a better way. For example, the track "Cough It Out" while good, is just a little to clean sounding; the same can be said of "The Plan (Fuck Jobs)" which seems like it will be a really energetic punk tune, but just ends up sounding like a commercial for laptops that can convert into tablets.
Still, even with this album's tendency to be a little too cleanly produced, the good songs here are truly awesome, and keep me coming back for repeat listens. So, If you are in the mood for some catchy, slightly emo rock music, this is highly recommended.
7.7/10
