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Written by Brian Polk
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Wednesday, 28 March 2007 |
Smoke or Fire
This Sinking Ship
Fat Wreck Chords
C
 Since the genre has little capacity for ingenuity, a pop punk band must take drastic measures to distinguish itself in a musical landscape littered with shameless imitation and formulaic banality. Longevity only comes to groups that helped define the music (Screeching Weasel), redefined accepted boundaries (Atom and His Package), or just never went away (NOFX).
So does newcomer Smoke or Fire hint at endurance, effectively distinguishing itself from the pop punk pack? If This Sinking Ship is any indication, the band will undoubtedly fade into obscurity before the end of the decade. Relying on standard punk songs and standard punk topics, the group offers very little differentiation from its genre peers. The song “What Separates Us All” features the chorus, “Divided we stand, united we’ll fall,” which is practically identical to the lyrics on another pop punk song that predates Smoke or Fire by almost a decade—30 Foot Fall’s “Divided We Stand” (“Divided we stand, together we fall”). | The track “Life Imitating Art” stresses the negative effects of television with the words, “Does it numb enough of your mind?”—surprisingly similar to Stung Out’s anti-television opus, “I don’t have a mind of my own.” There are only a few instances where the group brings uniqueness to its songs—when it affectionately affirms its fondness for Guns ‘N’ Roses (“We’ve got the jukebox playing GNR”), which no punk rocker is supposed to admit sober. Or when it boldly proclaims the difficulties of touring (“This life is not for everyone, it’s harder than you know”), which will never convince any of its fans over 18 who work menial jobs and aren’t fortunate enough to travel the world, making money playing shows and meeting cool people.
While This Sinking Ship presents catchy songs that give kids who just discovered punk a valuable reference point, it will undoubtedly join the thousands of well-meaning, but ultimately forgettable pop punk albums that came before it.
Check out the track The Patty Hearst Syndrome Or visit myspace.com/smokeorfire |
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