Title: Temporary
Format Reviewed: MP3
Format Released: 9th September 2014
Reviewed By: Quinn
Are you in your mid-to-late twenties? Do you still wear your three-quarter length Dickies and Famous Stars & Straps t-shirts? Do you know all the words to the American Pie 1, 2 and 3 soundtrack? Are the walls of your old bedroom at your parents' house still covered in posters of young pop-punk bands? Do you yearn for a new band that feels as strongly about old-school traditional pop-punk as you do? A band that refuses not to follow in the steps of Fall Out Boy and the plethora of bands that were sporned in the medieval era between 2005 and 2011, an era without blink-182, an era with Green Day rock operas and Jedward (yeah that shit was 2009), instead choosing to go back to pop-punk proper and take influence from all those posters still hanging on your old bedroom wall? Well, look no further than Light Years.
It's more than likely that some of you will already know Light Years. They are a four-piece band from Ohio, they formed in 2010 and have already released two albums. This year's release is a five track EP called Temporary and it is fucking awesome. There are elements of New Found Glory, All American Rejects, Sugarcult, Yellowcard and Broadway Calls (one of the few bands that emerged in that bleak late '00s period not to attempt the new style of pop-punk all the kids were misguidedly listening to) in every song.
You'll be hooked into the opening lyrics of the first track, My Whole Life, as the chorus is sung over a staggered guitar riff until the song kicks in proper and we are driven through at a rather leisurely pace as the song unapologetically croons over mistake and regrets offering a self evaluation of life post-adolescence, whilst reflecting on the past, themes that are echoed throughout the 16-minute record.
Fall Apart is another effortlessly paced track exhibiting all the structure points, guitar and vocal hooks you'd expect from a single, though not the one I'd have chosen to promote the EP. That task I'd have bestowed upon the EP's title track, Temporary. It's a nice mix of all those bands mentioned above, moving between fast verses and half time chorus that tease before hitting you with guitar lines that encourage the rigorous bouncing and head banging every single should have.
Late at Night and Wandering continue to deliver on the foundations set in the first three tracks, offering up songs you can sing along to from your lungs and your heart, with Wandering possibly showing the most emotion in the last ninety seconds of the song as it slows to a near stop before building to an impassioned repeat to fade ending.
This EP reminds me of every band I listened to during my GCSEs and beyond, sending me a on a nostalgia trip despite being brand new, offering a maturity that is seldom found amongst all those records that were the sound track to my formative years. There is certainly more energy in the albums that precede this release (as well as the bands that influenced it), but that is replaced with powerful riffs, big drums, and vocals that ring true to everyone that has spent a quarter of a century blinded by what a life of responsibility and heartbreak might hold. A better title would have been I Guess This is Growing Up, not only because blink-182 are the best band in the world and without them many bands wouldn't exist today (I'm sure Light Years falls into that category), but also because lyrically this is what the EP is about, shedding the skin of your teenage years that you have refused to let go of throughout your early adulthood and coming to terms with the fact you are a grown up, to look back and learn whilst looking forward with optimism and hope. This is emphasised through a line in Wandering “everybody had to change but I never wanted to leave”.
That last bit sounds like pretentious bullshit but that's my take away from this EP. Check it out and tell me I'm wrong.
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