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Bowling For Soup
- The Great Burrito Extortion Case
(A&G)
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| I’ve never hated Bowling For Soup. That somewhat dubious honour goes instead to New Found Glory. Saying that, I’ve never actually liked Bowling For Soup either, I've just tolerated them. |
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I have to admit '1985' was a good song, catchy and poppy but not irritably so — unlike some of their previous singles, which peddled the same formula Blink 182 were much better at. After a good few forgettable singles we’ve arrived at The Great Burrito Extortion Case, Bowling For Soup’s ninth (!) studio album. Produced by themselves and Russ T. Cobb, the band believes this is their most upbeat album to date. This doesn’t necessarily make it good…
Opener ‘Epiphany’ is exactly what you’d expect from a pop-punk track, catchy guitar lick, big sing-along chorus and ‘hilarious’ lyrics. Seriously, “It came to me; I think they call it an epiphany. Man that's a big word” has me in fits of giggles every time I hear it. Second track and lead single ‘High School Never Ends’ was co-written by Adam Schlesinger (of Fountains of Wayne fame) and it definitely shows. Sounding less like a Bowling For Soup song and more like a Weezer tribute band attempting to make original music. Green-era Weezer. It’s also the first song to deal with the Hollywood lyrical content that remains prevalent throughout the album. Val Kilmer, Reese Witherspoon, Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg and Mel Gibson are all name checked within various tracks.
‘Val Kilmer’ reeks of single; it follows the quiet/loud formula exactly, with yet another huge chorus. ‘I’m Gay’ is the most cringe worthy track I’ve possibly ever heard. Dealing with the problems of coming out as being gay it contains some of the worst lyrics I’ve ever had the privilege to read. “It's perfectly fine to be a happy individual”. Jesus. The song itself sounds like the rest of them, with a bit of talking.
I’ll give up trying to describe the songs now. There are only so many times I can use the words ‘catchy’, ‘poppy’, ‘huge’ and ‘chorus'. The simple fact is every single track sounds exactly the same. Except ‘When We Die’. This is the token slow song and no doubt a future single.
I know bands like this are meant to be fun — in fact that’s the reason I requested this album — but The Great Burrito Extortion Case was far from fun to listen to. It makes me angry. Quite how and why, I’m not sure, but I’m definitely not enjoying it. The fact is, this is a poor album even by Bowling For Soup’s standards, repeating the same drivel for 16 full tracks. There’s no ‘1985’ on here, there isn’t even a ‘Girl All the Bad Guys Want’, it’s just stale and tedious pop-punk nonsense. |
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| James Bunce - 3/10 |
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