There are two schools of thought with bands like Every Avenue. 1) They’re ten-a-penny pop-punk bands that have ripped off the MTV success of bands like Fall Out Boy and offer absolutely nothing new or original. 2) They’re catchier than a bout of syphillis on your local council estate and perkier than Jordan’s latest boob job.
To be fair there’s more than an element of both and this record could either get 2 or 4 out of 5 depending on which side of the pop-punk fence you sit on. Personally I don’t expect bands of this nature to re-invent the wheel; I simply enjoy it when they turn on the choruses and make you sing along to the max. And boy can Every Avenue make you sing. If ‘One More Song’ don’t getcha, ‘Picking Up The Pieces’ surely will. Gloria Estefan was right – the rythmn will get you and Every Avenue‘s radio friendly grooves will have you swaying and tapping along in no time.
And while you cannot ignore the Patrick Stump-esue vocals or the ‘Take This To Your Grave’-era guitars that reverberate around this six-track EP, Every Avenue write catchy, catchy songs that will make them one of the bands to keep an eye on in 2008. It’s simple yet effective – and ‘Ah!’ will surely lead on to much bigger and better things.