Emotionalpunk.com
Media Review
Music Quality: 7.5
Production: 5.5
Originality: 7.0
Tracklisting
2. Blue Skies
3. Empty Tank
4. Maybe Just Maybe
5. It's Never About What It's About
6. The Truth About Love
7. Goodbye To Romance
8. Crash Sounds
9. Cursed By Yourself
10. Lost Without You
11. Unlucky
While it might be too easy to immediately cut to pointing out the similarities, it’s also too obvious to leave out that Blackpool Lights features Jim Suptic, former singer of The Get Up Kids. Even if you weren’t aware that he was, the singer’s influences become strikingly obvious the second “This Town’s Disaster” comes on.
“This Town’s Disaster,” the title track, opens with a raunchy guitar hook and upbeat guitar riffs and lyrics. It’s hard not to enjoy the raw, passionate stylings of Suptic: “…All this guilt will weigh me down, the king of pain I’d wear the crown…” Catchy and familiar, Suptic and company reveal their love for thick, straight-forward rock on most of the tracks, but often hints of folk (the heartfelt “Maybe, Just Maybe”) and Jimmy Eat World style pop (“Lost Without You”) shine through.
On most of “This Town’s Disaster’s” tracks, the mood feels light and almost rural—fitting for the group of Missouri boys. Suptic often confronts personal moods and feelings—and it generally sounds pretty damn genuine.
Even as “This Town’s Disaster” is leaps and bounds from their EP in the way of song craft and style (yes, some of the tracks on here were on the EP too), generally, the disc remains from getting too memorable. Perhaps the rather dry, unrefined production on the record holds the band from writing the soaring choruses The Get Up Kids were able to write—but I’d put my finger on the moments when the band, instead of writing blasting, catchy rock songs, turns to acoustic ballads that often sound a bit dry. It might not be fair to simply wish for another Get Up Kids, but, Blackpool Lights’ new style just isn’t memorable on enough occasions to tickle my fancy.
Regardless, fans of the slower, folkier moments of The Get Up Kids’ (notably, “On A Wire” and a few songs on “Guilt Show”) will find Blackpool Lights truly enjoyable.