For those who are (or were) fans of punk music and the entire lifestyle have probably felt pretty angry over the past few years with the
uprise of pop-punk (or 'real punk' to little tenage girls). Bands like blink 182, Good Charlotte and Newfound Glory all basically have released
the same type of music the past few years without ever really venturing into any other musical territory. Therefore it eithers damns the band to
have the same type of teenage fans without showing any sign of maturity or they switch it up and threaten to lose some of thier crowd (think Box Car Racer
as a start.) The first non-side project band to actually try to sound different is the Canadian pop-punk quartet Sum 41 with "Does This Look Infected?".
You may be turned off by the title of the album sounding similar to a blink-182 album but this offers a better variety than blink's latest or for that
matter anything pop-punk in the last few years. The album has a much harder edge than the 'let's play it safe' sound of last year's "All Killer, No Filler".
Listening to "DTLI" recalls a mixture of Offspring and old underground punk bands like The Ramones. But that's not to say that the album doesn't still have
'play it safe' songs like "My Direction" and the "Fat Lip"-like "Thanks For Nothing", both of which are disposable. Thankfully Sum 41 doesn't center the entire
album around break-ups and love (i.e. Newfound Glory) and keep the hard sound consistently throughout the album. But the hard sound is as much of a blessing as it
is a curse. After a while it feels like a rollercoaster where it's really exciting at the start but after remaining the same for a while it just seems to get old.
They blatantly rip-off P.O.D.'s "Boom" on "Hooch", they do the cliched one-minute profanity song, lead singer's Deryk's yelling that seems so refreshing at the beginning become tiresome halfway through the album
but continue until the album's soft ending. The lyrics, although lacking in some parts, show maturity from thier last release in songs like "Still Waiting" and "Over My Head"
but still goof-off in "A.I.N.C. (formerly titled "A--Hole")".
With all of its' faults it's still light years better than the regular run-of-the-mill "punk" albums this year from
Newfound Glory. They seem to be onto something good but still need to truly discover thier true sound. It may be a bit
tiresome and possibly a bit lacking but it's one of the better creative statements from a mainstream band this year.
