I Don't Hear A Single isn't generally in the habit of reviewing bands with 204,000 Facebook followers. It as least 200K more than our norm, but the return after 7 years of New Jersey's The Bouncing Souls is a reason to celebrate. I make this their 12th album and they are one of the best at what they do.
You could call them a proper definition of what Pop Punk should be, instead the genre gets stuck with impressions of rapid fire robotic vocals and people thinking its all kids in Baggy half pants. The genre is 3 decades and some old now and the best of the breed have survived and are much closer to Power Pop than you'd believe.
I love Pop Punk, not the dude vocalist talk singing, but the real masters of it. The Bouncing Souls fit that bill. This is loud anthemic chorus led melody, delivered at pace with an all together now vibe. It is raucous and highly addictive.
This band though have an ability to transcend the genre stereotypes. They can change direction partway through a song to make it even more catchy, take for instance Kenver and Shannon's Song. They can switch to UK New Wave (Andy And Jackie) or get close to Heavy Metal (To Be Human).
Higher Ground is even pure Power Pop. They are at their very best when they are anthemic, most notably on the superb Back To Better which reveals most about what their basic winning template is. Ten Stories High's 10 songs are over too quickly, so you have time to play the album again.
A special mention has to be made for True Believer Radio which may be the closest that The Bouncing Souls ever get to AOR without ever getting there. It may just be that Pop Punk now is just noisier Power Pop. I'm in if so. This album will certainly shake off the cobwebs. Wonderful!
You can listen to and buy the album here.
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