The first I’d heard of ZEBRAHEAD was when they landed a slot on the recent RBF/GOLDFINGER tour. I didn’t manage to make it to any of the shows so this album is my first taste of the band. And after being on tour with those two bands I expected a happy ska record. This however has no brass or any other sign of ska in sight but certainly is a smiler of an album.
As the first clean chord strums of opening track ‘Rescue Me’ get torn apart by a mean ass pick scrape breaking into a bouncy pop-punk riff you know this is going to be an album for the summer and that it is; this first track, as well as being a stand out track, represents the album perfectly. Plenty of melodic hooks especially in the choruses, a few heavier and tougher breakdowns combined with some rapping, yes rapping and it does work really well although you can’t help but picture LINKIN PARK in places. (Oooerr Mrs)
The super polished production only helps the already radio-friendly feel of the tracks sound even better and it does create a sort of summer anthems feel to it in general. The sort of thing you could expect to hear in an American Pie film; just plain, happy fun filled songs. This is something that remains consistent throughout the album. I wouldn’t say there was one bad song on this and there’s lots of tracks which scream alternative music TV hit all over them; ‘Hello Tomorrow and ‘Blur’ are catchy and bouncy enough to even bother the main stream.
So can this punk-rock-rap hybrid of a release be the soundtrack to the summer. Well yes, it could well be. I can certainly see it blaring from my stereo whilst having a BBQ’d burger in one hand and a beer in the other. While it doesn’t really have that completely commercial top 10 single hiding amongst the 15 tracks, the sheer happy consistency makes it glide down as smooth as ice cream but I can’t see it propelling ZEBRAHEAD in to the status say LIT were at a few years back. A good release nonetheless.
Mike
Released on Golf Records
