HundredPennies

While the last albums I reviewed (Panic At The Disco’s:Pretty Odd and Millencolin’s:Machine 15) showed a dramatic or a subtle change in sound, the 8th album from Pennywise shows absolutely no change from the music that they were playing back in the 90’s. They even unashamedly reference this on the intro song, with the lines “Competitive, narcissistic you know we’re not going to change”.

I was originally going to say give Pennywise some credit for how they’ve released this album for free over myspace. However, I was left with a slightly bitter taste in my mouth after finding out that you have to sign up to myspace & add the mobile phone parasite company Textango as a friend (just think of all those annoying ads on TV).

It’s albums like this that explain why I was never a massive fan of Pennywise. This is the worst kind of punk music as it’s stereotypical, stagnant and despite the rapid fire speed actually kind of boring. The first time I heard the album I couldn’t even stomach listening to the whole thing and switched it off after only getting to the ½ way point. It’s sounds like someone’s flicked the switch on a mechanical drum & guitar machine for 40 min and it’s impossible to distinguish when one track finishes & the next one starts. This means nearly every song sounds the same and there’s little sense of melody or diversity found on the album.

However if you’re to judge the songs on an individual basis you may get a bit more out of them including the first track As Long As We Can which is actually one of the highlights on the album and builds up from a slow beginning to a powerhouse chorus with a breakdown thrown in for good measure. This is followed on by the thrash track One Reason with contains some heavy guitar chords and thundering drum work that complements the chorus with some Wooah’s and yeah’s throw in for good measure. There are plenty more of these melodic vocals on the rest of the album and while I’m normally a huge sucker for sing along sections, they just don’t seem to do it for me & instead come across as sounding repetitive and desperate after first couple of tracks. The only other track that stands out is their single The Western Wall, which the band describes as being their most commercial song yet. In the end it still sounds pretty ordinary and their old school singles Alien or Fuck Authority are much better.

It’s a shame that this record is so disappointing as I really thought their last two underrated releases (The Fuse & From The Ashes) were really good and finally showed some progression for the band. The breakdowns, changes in pace & anthem nature of these songs show how good Pennywise could be, but only go to highlight how bad their latest record is. The band actually stated in an interview that they had written about 60 songs for this album and it’s therefore a bit baffled why they chose so many songs that sound the same. Overall A Reason to Believe is an utterly forgettable album that I doubt will get many plays on my ipod (I struggled to get through it 4 times for this review). Alright I’ve burned this album enough, now for something completely better.

Highlight Tracks

• As long As We Can
• One Good Reason
• The Western Wall

Overall Rating

60/100 Pennies