Review: Much The Same – Everything Is Fine
Read the review and listen to the new album by Much The Same
A short time ago, I was talking with a friend of mine about how I’m a fan of ‘90s melodic hardcore and bands such as Nofx, Lagwagon and No Use For a Name, but when it comes to new stuff, I struggle to find bands that are somehow similar to the above-mentioned ones and albums that I like. We’re certainly living in a period of nostalgia and nearly every punk band of every subgenre tries to reproduce something we’ve already heard, sometimes with remarkable results, other times, unproductively. Lagwagon and Nofx were kids of the ‘80s punk (but also metal) scene who listened to bands such as Bad Brains, Black Flag and Misfits and this led them to combine their hardcore roots with a new, more melodic spirit. On the other hand, modern bands listen to ‘90s music, but they often forget their favourite bands’ hardcore punk roots. Back in the day, the best way to learn was to take a look at the stickers on the guitars or the writings on our heroes’ t-shirts to find out what their influences were. Now, with biographies and the Internet, it’s all easier.
Is this the case with Much The Same and their third record Everything Is Fine? A classic album played with technique, but without heart and inspiration?
Let’s start by saying that we’re not talking about a group of inexperienced millennials: the band from Chicago looks back on two quite dated albums: Quitter Never Wins, published by A-F Records in 2003 and Survive, edited by Nitro Records in 2006, which featured collaborations with the great Zoli Teglas (Ignite and, for a period of time, Pennywise’s virtuous singer) for the backing vocals. At the end of that fairly successful phase, the band broke up, during what has perhaps been the darkest moment for punk rock music, ousted by metalcore (which is now dead, thank goodness). The album comes after years of silence, during which the guitarist Dan O’Gorman won his battle against cancer, an event that led the old friends to meet and start making music again together, in the way that works best for them: with technical, melodic, impactful, up-tempo blusters. This is what happens when we play this album, possibly on a turntable, since the record comes out in the US, Europe and Australia with three coloured vinyl versions which are aesthetically beautiful (in Europe, you can find it through Lockjaw records). This record sounds more “pop” than Survive even though speed is not missing and the first track, Burner, confirms it. Then follows Snake in the Grass, a track you can also find on YouTube and in which Franky Tsoukalas’ bass is the master, combining excellent lines with guitars and vocals that recall NUFAN in their heyday. The most pop track is You Used To Have, extremely effective and straightforward if it weren’t for some background vocals that are too artificial and produced. Stronger tracks such as Haunted (my personal favourite) and Homecoming alternate with slower, but structured tracks like the great Man of Science Man of Faith and Stranger in Fiction, which lasts almost four minutes and whose title explicitly winks at Bad Religion. The second to last track is the acoustic In the Event of… I honestly find it a bit superfluous; it makes the way to Passengers, a song with an intro in the style of A Wilhelm Scream and a chorus which is perhaps the best in the entire LP.
What’s the verdict, then? The umpteenth, unnecessary album or a deserving work? I think it’s an excellent album. It wasn’t written to overturn the genre, but it certainly offers effective solutions for what concerns the writing of the songs, the technique and melody, and reaps the fruits of what the band had sown years before. Bands like this are rare in Italy, but we have a lot of excellent exponents: 7years, from Leghorn, have been offering albums and live shows that have nothing to envy to Americans for years. Let us always remember to value what we have.
Review by Nick Northern
Translation by Alessia Baraldo
Listen to “Everything Is Fine” below: