Album Review: The Rookie League - Sinking The Friendship

These rookies deserve listeners’ attention. The Rookie League’s new 6 track EP entitled ‘Sinking The Friendship’ is a pop-punk/hardcore influenced delight that will be on punk fans’ playlists for a considerable amount of time. Quick punk drumming, melodic choruses and typical punk elements are abundant, but the songs are crafted well enough that they’ll stick with any fan of the genre.

Opener ‘Heroes For Sale’ launches the EP into a typical punk rock power chord situation, but the pre-chorus/chorus sections of this track shine. It’s as catchy as it is smartly written, with rolling drums and lots of great melody. Of all of the great tracks on ‘Sinking The Friendship’, ‘Heroes’ is one of the most solid. Other highlights include ‘Sinking The Friendship’ and ‘The Hard Goodbye’. ‘Friendship’ uses a little bit of synthesizer to keep things interesting and ‘Goodbye’ is a little more subdued and utilizes some piano to drive the song.

2010 seemed to be the year that revitalized the pop-punk scene, and if The Rookie League are any indication of things to come, listeners have a lot more excellent pop punk headed their way. Fans of the genre and fans of post hardcore/hardcore punk should give ‘Sinking The Friendship’ a shot. I’m confident they’ll find they’ve sunk their time and attention into an EP that’s worthwhile.

4/5

'Sinking The Friendship' by The Rookie League is available now.

The Rookie League on MySpace, Facebook, Big Cartel and Twitter.

Landon Peterson