Album Review: This Time Next Year - Drop Out Of Life

It’s been a while since anything was heard from California’s This Time Next Year, and they’ve returned with the release of their sophomore album, ‘Drop Out Of Life’. Another in the list of “pop-punk with a message” albums, like Man Overboard’s ‘Defend Pop Punk’ campaign and the Wonder Years’ brand of realist optimism, This Time Next Year are championing dropping out of the life you are currently living and finding “the positive lifestyle that was meant for you”.

TTNY has leant heavily on New Found Glory, enlisting Paul Miner to engineer the album, who has previously worked with the stalwarts, and putting Chad Gilbert behind the desk. Even if you haven’t followed NFG’s career, it would be hard not to pick up the influence. The guitar lines, vocal delivery and lyrics all contribute to this NFG love-in.

The opening track is the rabble-rousing ‘Drop Out of Life’, it’s going for anthemic and it hits it pretty dead on. As a statement of intent, it’s as strong as it gets: “I want to drop out of life and get on with my days/ drop out of life and have something to say when I’m dead/ It’s you, not me, who’s going to hurt like hell”. Cue scores of kids putting that as their Facebook status, no doubt. However, this song is also the worst offender for “most forced swear words in a song” and perhaps the chorus doesn’t quite hit the heights the song deserves, but it’s good – and unfortunately, it’s also as good as it gets.

What follows is a perfectly functional pop-punk album. Drawing on Yellowcard, Punchline and, of course, NFG, the album flirts with some breakdowns, slows it down occasionally and tries hard to drop in the edgy lyrics. There are some more hits, though. ‘Spoontonic’, which again is slightly let down by a bland chorus, is one of the more musically interesting songs and shows some deviation from ‘pop-punk by numbers’.

Pop-punk albums, typically, haven’t been growers – the point of their short, sharp shock method is to make an immediate impact. TTNY don’t exactly break that mold, but this seems to be an album that can be on at just the right time. Various play-through have yielded various reactions, from sheer indifference, to utter enjoyment. But it’s not a grower, and it’s not a keeper. It won’t hog the headphones and if it’s taken a pop song to tell you to ‘drop out of life’ then I probably wouldn’t do it.

For those looking for something to fill the gap between now and the latest New Found Glory album, this might be a winner, but more likely it’ll be gathering metaphorical dust on your hard drive while you occasionally crack out the one or two highlights ‘Drop Out of Life’ can offer.

2.5/5

'Drop Out Of Life' is out now on Equal Vision Records.

Nick Robbins