This one’s been staring at me from the top of my review pile for some time. So it’s only right I finally say my piece about it. Simply looking at their name, you know what you’re getting with RCKLSS. Take a fairly common word, shorten it to crop up first in a search engine of your choice and you know immediately what genre this is: pop punk.
But even though they’ve went with the modern trend of doing so for a name, So Cynical’s tracks have more in common with the early 2000s vein of pop punk whilst twisting it to make it sound different yet keep it in that familiar camp. There’s the bite and snap of prime Yellowcard buried in “Every Time” whilst elsewhere, Matty Halliwell’s drawl comes eerily close to Simon Neil at various moments. In fact, closing track “Empty Space” sounds like it could have come from a mid-2000s Biffy album.
Lyrically, it’s what you’d expect from a pop punk EP, riddled with emotions and experiences anyone can relate to, mixing pleading moments with sneers on a vocal aspect. Elsewhere, it fairly standard stuff from the melodies themselves. Scratchy chords and riffs with their characteristic tinny sounds blend the pop with the punk and musically, it’s a rather upbeat half-dozen tracks. There’s punch in all of them and they’ll force you to bob your head along to them.
RCKLSS aren’t a bad band, indeed, they’re rather proficient at their genre and know the exact trappings so for a debut, this is one of the most accomplished you can hear. The downside is the familiarity of the music as it’s fairly standard pop punk fare. However, that’s no bad thing because it’s a great genre by a great band and So Cynical is a great addition to showing how to make a handful of songs you can sit back, listen and enjoy repeatedly. If you’re a fan of pop punk, you’re going to be right at home with this.
So Cynical is out now
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