Review By Alex Slakva
3.8/5 Dragons
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Straight outta Scotland, Straight Jacket Legends bring an unlikely, yet refreshing flavour to the pop-punk genre. Those familiar with the genre staples will find that their upcoming November 11 release ‘Lemon Party’ delivers both in title and content.
Immediately, the biggest take away from the six tracks that make up ‘Lemon Party’ is that this band’s ambitions lie beyond replicating American acts like Blink 182, or more recently Man Overboard. Instead, Straight Jacket Legends combine the genre subject matters popularized by those (and similar) acts and combine it with a certain orchestral sound, both instrumentally and the 2 styles of the 2 vocalists’ singing. Tracks like Alibi, Sofia, & Night Time particularly seem to be written with heavy consideration for their lyrical hooks and concert hall sing-along. Particularly the thematically serious and piano heavy ballad, Night Time, which seems like a tactically-poppy payload aimed at UK charts. The remaining tracks, Paul Shakes, She’s out of line are definitely more conventional pop-punk pieces leaving the broke-musician & party-rebel anthem, Call Vic, somewhere in the stylistic middle.
It would be a bad lie to say that even a single track off this EP isn’t catchy, but the latter mentioned, straight forward tracks, come off a bit vapid compared to, say Sofia. It’s not that Paul Shakes or Call Vic aren’t fun songs, it’s just that it has been done before and the overall ‘sound’ of this EP is more engrained in pop, not punk. For my money, however, I’d put all my chips on She’s Out Of Line as the single that will draw in the most fans (which is likely why it now has its own music video). This track sounds like Bloodhound Gang, but with pop punk choruses. Perhaps it is a bit unreasonable to pick the most niche song on the record as the best, but it is very boyish, original and fun and those are definitely characteristics that represent this band the best.
If their 2015 debut album manages to trim the fat a little bit, or perhaps add texture where texture is needed, it will definitely be hit from either community.
Vandala Magazine 