I’ve been waiting 9 years to review this album. Yes, I’m fully aware I reviewed it back in 2000/1 but it’s a shocking review that doesn’t do the album justice. And I’m fully aware that no matter what I say now I will never, ever be happy. But now The Get Up Kids have reformed and re-released this album, 10 years after it’s original release. And the simple fact is that ‘Something To Write Home About’ is the best album of all time, ever. Seriously.
Over the last 10 years I must have listened to thousands and thousands of new bands, yet I keep going back to this album. It has this gravitational pull on me that no other album I have ever heard has done. The test of a great record is one you listen to over and over again and never get bored. It’s a record that two, three…five years after you first heard it you’re desperate to sing along. I think this album is the only record I’ve heard that after 10 years I’m still desperate to put it on and sing every word. I remember when I first heard it back in 1999. I was 19 years old and it was the summer between my first and second years of university. I fell in love with the robots on the cover and fell in love with every single song. It became the backdrop to not just my first real relationship break-up, but the second too. And the third. And the fourth. And with every different lyric, every different word, I would find something else to relate to. Whether it be the delicate ‘Valentine’ or the brutally frank ‘Red Letter Day’, every single word just fit my late teens. It was like the soundtrack to Dawsons Creek, if Dawsons Creek was set in a cold and wet north-western town and the lead character failed to get any of the girls.
Fast forward 10 years and The Get Up Kids have an extremely varied, yet excellent, back catalogue. Their recent revival was majestic and it gave me and many others the opportunity to re-live many of these songs in a live setting. And while this record is nothing more than an excuse to go on a world tour and make a few quid in the process, I’m hopeful it will turn on a generation of new fans who were too young to get into the band first time around. After all, this is as honest and passionate a record as you can get. So, so many bands have copied and ripped them off over the years and had far more commercial success. But very few manage to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up as mine do whenever Matt Pryor belts out the line “how could you do this to me?”
So where to start? Every song, literally every single word, is a winner. Whether it be the anthemic ‘Action and Action‘ or the singalongs of ‘Ten Minutes‘, or even the slowies of ‘Out of Reach’ or ‘I’ll Catch You’, there simply isn’t a second of poor music here. Admittedly I love the band best when they put their foot to the floor and ‘Red Letter Day’ and ‘I’m A Loner Dottie…’ are just awesome songs. But the variety makes this record flow so, so well. It’s totally flawless. I haven’t even mentioned the extras you get on the re-release of this album. As well as the CD album itself you get an extra DVD which, to be honest, is merely a sideshow to the main event. A full live set, excellently captured, plus old footage, live bits and chatting makes it essential for any fan. The band are tight, a lot of fun and they manage to capture that energy really well. The singalongs are pretty fun too – there’s a bit near the end of ‘Ten Minutes‘ were Matt and Jim kind of do this ‘wooo’ noise and turn to each other and smile. It just sums up this whole record.
This album literally changed my life. Without it I wouldn’t have discovered Epitaph Records Europe, without whom there wouldn’t be a Punktastic. And that opens up a real can of worms. No matter how much I write and what I say I’ll never truly convey how much I love this record. All I will say is that if I could only keep one album and listen to it forever more, it would be this record.
‘No need for reminding. You’re still all that matters to me’.