When a band lists their genre as punk/electro it spells a recipe for disaster and EVERYTHING ON RED have hit that nail royally on the head. The electro/punk/whatever outfit’s new EP ‘The Light Again’ is a 12-minute long car crash of an EP. Opening track ‘My Lifeline’ has an incredibly annoying synth section then leading into inevitable gang shouts and when you thought it couldn’t get any worse it turns all screamo on us; four minutes never felt so long. ‘Threadbare’ isn’t much better opening up with what appears to the same effect they used on the Mario games in the 80s then lulling into bland paint by numbers pop punk.
Title track ‘The Light Again’ sounds as if Elliot Minor had been giving them pointers on how to ruin a song by putting unnecessary piano concertos in. It leaves the entire EP as something you’d rather never listen to again. The day when a synth keyboard is as far away from punk as possible will be one defining day for pop punk.
TOM WALSH