Four Minute Mile,
The Get Up KidsThere are some amazing bands out there and 2002 looks set to be a very prosperous year for punk. New albums from all kinds of bands are eargerly anticipated, but perhaps none more so than the new record from this lot. The Get Up Kids produced one of the all-time great records in 1998 with 'Something To Write Home About', and while the Kansas crew are in the studio putting the finishing touches to the new CD, their first release has been rereleased in the UK.
To quickly sum up, 'Four Minute Mile' is a work of genius. It's not as good as it's predecessor, but to be fair that is nigh on impossible. There's no over production and no complications, GUK simply let the music do the talking. This is jam packed with emotion and shows quite righly why the band are heralded as the kings of the 'emo' scene. The record starts off with 'Coming Clean', your faster-than-average GUK song. Well, for the first 30 seconds at least. Far less polished than their last record, it's perhaps more honest. And when Matthew Pryor is apologising by singing "I'm sorry, I hope you'll forgive me," you really do believe his soul is tourtured. 'Don't Hate Me' continues in this mould with an opening line of "Forgive me for running off to find the one thing I have to do." And with a typical GUK chorus-to-die-for, it's impossible not to come over all emoey, at least for an instant.
'Fall Semester' has plenty of quiet/loud bits that the Kids are famed for, and although it's a bit cliched nowadays, the band do it well. 'Stay Gold, Ponyboy' starts off with a repetitive distorted riff, and although it's not the greatest song on the CD, it's still pretty good. 'Lowercase West Thomas' is very slow and really does tug at the heartstrings. Some people would probably think that this is whiney and goes on for far too long, but ignore them because they're quite obviously heartless. This is followed by the quicker pace of 'Washington Square Park' which really does hint at the direction which GUK have moved in during recent times.
The poppier 'Last Place You Look' is a definite highlight, and reflects the style that the Kids are now famed for. And Matt's voice is so brutaly honest it hurts. "The grass is always greener as I'm sure that you've found," certainly is a bit too close to home for me. 'Better Half' is slower and builds up into another classic and 'No Love' could have come straight from any Beatles album. The Get Up Kids just don't write bad songs. 'Shorty' carries on where all of the other great songs on this record left off, although it's not quite up to the standard of some of the other tracks.
This leaves the finale of 'Michelle With One L', yet another bizarre song title. Needless to say, the song is sensational. It's really difficult to find a superlative that describes how brilliant and honest this band are. They let their hearts drip off their sleeves throughout, baring their souls for all to see. There are so many bands that have attempted to copy them, but none seem to pull it off as well.
If you've not checked out The Get Up Kids already, then you're missing out on one of the world's best kept secrets. But with a new record out very soon, don't expect them to be a secret for too much longer. This is a blissfully brilliant emotional rollercoaster of a record. Sweet, simplistic and full of sorrow, it really has to be part of your record collection.
Paul Savage
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