Album Review: Solution Against - The Thing About Life Is...

The raw melodic pop punk tunes of Solution Against have made waves in their home town of Nottingham. They have played plenty shows around their area and have a support with The Swellers soon. Not too shabby for a band that was only formed a year ago. Their first EP 'The Thing About Life Is...' is five songs of raw, fast paced pop punk.

'Breathe For This' leaps headfirst into this sound, no introductions, just blistering drums backed by shredding guitars. Vocalist James Wright isn’t going to set the world on fire with his voice, but he can carry a tune, and he doesn’t falter or slip into an obnoxious whine. At just over a minute in a half, it is a short lived introduction that is then offset by the next four songs, which all feel too long. Electric Habit ticks off the pop punk staples, beginning with gang vocals before Wright kicks in over palm muted guitar riffs. The lyrics, particularly those of the chorus, aren’t much to write home about. They sound like they came out a pop punk “mistrust establishment” manual. Still it’s good to see that not all young bands are just writing songs about girls they want to or have slept with.

Tracks two to four fall in around the five minute mark, and it is a little bit of a hindrance, as it makes them sound a little too repetitive. Both 'Party Manifesto' and 'The Past Was Our Comfort' suffer, as they vary enough to justify the lengthy run time. Of the two the latter is better, as it takes things into a heavier direction and lets the guitar riffs shine. The worst offender is the last track, which lasts for a hefty seven minutes. The song itself is actually quite good, but could easily be a couple of minutes shorter. It does give each member of the band something to do though, with plenty of opportunities for fills and solos.

'The Thing About Life Is...' could use a little bit of fine tuning. At times it seems overindulgent which dampens the EP, which is a shame because the songs are quite good. With this generation of pop punk seeming to focus on poppier beats and sugary lyrics about girls and being young, it is refreshing to see a band with a bit of a harder edge. Solution Against still show enough signs of something to look forward to in future releases, and certainly show enough to justify their support slots of bands like The Swellers.

2.5/5

'The Thing About Life Is...' by Solution Against is available as a free download here.

Solution Against on MySpace

Jamie Kirk