Ten Ton World EP,
All About AdamThe drift from the pseudo-yank wannabees of my last reviewing ‘victims’ and Exeter’s All About Adam is like switching the channel from Prisoner Cell Block H to find Neighbours is on the Beeb. In other words, while All About Adam are still planted firmly in the realms of poppy punk, they owe more to the likes of Captain Everything and Face to Face than Simple Plan and Mest. Which, I’m sure we will all agree, is a very good thing.
Having been around for the past four years, All About Adam are hardly spring chickens to this kind of thing and the crisp recording and tight musicianship are examples of their relative experience. While only 3 tracks long, ‘Ten Ton World’ is a delightful little EP full of purely British punk rock that holds no pretensions and does exactly what it says on the tin. The title track starts off sounding a little like Consumed (the vocals mainly) before drifting into a Captain Everything style chorus, albeit at a slowed down pace and is a good indicator of the bands sound.
1984 is short and sweet, but is probably the worst of the three tracks on show. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the song, it’s just that there’s nothing particularly striking about it either. Which kind of sums up this EP on a whole. Three tracks, excellently recorded and presented, but ultimately over way too soon and with too few killer hooks to stand the test of time. The final track, ‘Falling Down’, reminds me a lot of Dude Ranch-era Blink, especially the chorus which brings to mind the chorus to ‘Pathetic’ (which caused me to sing the latter all bloody morning without realising what I was actually singing) and is raises a smile and a tap of the foot if nothing else.
At the end of the day, All About Adam, and this EP in particular, are unlikely to hold your attention for long. In the grand scale of things, they are two or three steps down from the likes of national heroes (possibly) Captain Everything and maybe one or two steps down from other, lesser-known acts such as Mybe, but they are far from being a bad band. Maybe a little bland, a little short on originality and lacking that one killer song or hook can that can raise a bands game, but there’s certainly nothing wrong with the poppy punk they are purveying. At least they don’t pretend to be American….
Ross
