Album Review: The Swellers - Good For Me

Around 18 months ago, when I first realised that pop-punk was neither dead, nor that I had outgrown it, there was a batch of bands that I kept hearing about – the defenders of the genre. And while Transit, Man Overboard, Fireworks, This Time Next Year, and, of course, the Wonder Years, have been spun plenty of times, The Swellers, of who I was told to expect plenty, has been relegated to the “nary a play” shelf.

You see, while I was expecting to love 'Ups and Downsizing', I found myself merely tolerating it. I loved “2009”, but the rest of the album passed me by, it was bland and it was everything I believed pop-punk should distance itself from becoming – safe, uninspired, boring.

I'm glad to say that The Swellers has improved since then with 'Good for Me', but they are a way from convincing me they have left the 'comfort zone'.

The best example of this is album opener, 'Runaways'. Sounding like 'So Long Astoria'-era Ataris, it is about 9/10ths of a good song, but there is just something about it that lacks 'oomph'. On paper, it sounds fantastic, good lyrics, strong hook and a memorable chorus, but it combined, it sounds too much like 'pop-punk by numbers'.

The first single, 'The Best I Ever Had', is the ode to nostalgia that sums up the safety-first approach. There's something of a pre-teen Gaslight Anthem about the song as well, and its saccharine sweetness ends up grating by the end of its four minute run.

The album lacks a pantomine villain-esque, bad song, but it's mostly bereft of highlights, too. I think the problem The Swellers have is that the genre has moved on, but they haven't. Put this out in 2003 and it would be trend-setting, but, like 'The Best I Ever Had', it's a nostalgia fest that actually begins to make you wish for the future (or at least the present).

A word of encouragement however, perhaps The Swellers' future lies not in the over-crowded genre of pop-punk, but in the even more over-crowded alternative-rock arena. The best song on the album, 'On The Line', could have fallen straight of a Foo Fighters' album, and the big, stadium-friendly rock that that song represents may best indicate the direction the band has to take to nail a sound they are fully comfortable with.

2.5/5

'Good For Me' is out now on Fueled By Ramen.