Issue #3 - The Wonder Years and Fightstar
Two albums about the end of the world from 2015
Every other week, Ryan🇺🇸and Dan🇬🇧give each other an album to listen to and then talk about it. Most of these albums will probably be some form of emo (at least to start). Yes, we are aware this would probably work better as a podcast.
Ryan: Good evening Dan.
Dan: It's a great evening. I've been doing DIY and listening to The Wonder Years. No complaints from me.
Ryan: Wow that sounds pretty perfect. Real good building furniture and gently weeping music. Was this your first full Wonder Years album experience?
Dan: It was. And I'm sort of annoyed about that. Like where have I been?
Ryan: They seem extremely Your Shit.
Dan: Extremely. I'm horny on main for The Wonder Years. Here's a dumb thing about being me, and having lived through the 90s and 00s eras of pop punk, I'm hesitant to listen to a lot of the bands that came up after, because I assume it will be derivative. And then I miss out on The Wonder Years.
Ryan: I think they are definitely an exception. The “defend pop punk” moment in the late 00s really came and went but The Wonder Years have so far managed to grow with the times. I will say, this isn’t my FAVORITE of their albums and I believe it’s one that fans aren’t super pumped about, but so far they haven’t really released something I’ve hated
Dan: They aren't doing anything particular mold-breaking in terms of the music, but they are playing with tools of the genre incredibly well, and doing it in ways that are deeper and more mature than a lot of bands. Like most of the bands age-out once the teen angst is gone, but there's a lot that is fresh here. This album is extremely me. I'm glad this was the one you chose.
Ryan: I’m glad to hear you liked it! Also before we go any further. This is 2015 week.
Dan: Oh right, lets set this thing up. It's 2015 week!
Ryan: Which even though politically we’ve essentially been living the same day since 2015, that is somehow five years ago.
Dan: 2015 was the last time we could collectively breathe, so it might have been an accidental theme in that respect. But it's fun to reminisce back to when albums weren't all about our current political situation. On that note, tell me what you made of Fightstar
Ryan: So this is definitely the heaviest album we’ve done so far. These guys are the Evangelion album band correct?
Dan: Yes their first two albums were basically Evangelion concept albums. It's doing a lot, and doing it so well. There are synths!
Ryan: I love synths haha and hearing the synths on this thing was a real unexpected joy. Also the djent guitars. Fuck I love just like filthy chugging djent. Hmm that sounds wrong.
Dan: Fightstar have been a very important band for me since 2005 and that's before I'd even seen Evangelion. Side note, Behind The Devil's Back is the reason I started my original music newsletter Mixtape (2016-2018, RIP), because I listened to it so much that it was basically the only thing on my Spotify rewind in 2015.
Ryan: Oh lol also also wait we gotta mention THIS IS A BUSTED SIDE PROJECT.
Dan: Busted is a Fightstar side project. We all had first jobs. I worked in a horse stables. Charlie was in a boy band.
Ryan: Oh lol you should uh find a copy of the first Wonder Years album. The band doesn’t really acknowledge it. But it’s ROUGH. Like songs about Cap’n Crunch and ninjas rough.
Dan: Wait til you read my review. I was like the music is so good Campbell could've written about ANYTHING and it would slap. I'll let you find out what the anything I mentioned was.
Ryan’s album for Dan:
No Closer To Heaven by The Wonder Years
TL;DR: Pop Punk Goes Grown Up
Tell me more: No Closer To Heaven is the fifth studio album by The Wonder Years. It's a concept album about the death of a loved one, specifically an unnamed friend singer and lyricist Dan Campbell lost. But it also deals with depression and feelings of helplessness and despair, which Campbell had been dealing with in the months leading up to recording this album.
On first listen it's a polished production, the songs are tight and melodic with plenty of range, swinging from slow and sombre to loud and angry in a beat. The Wonder Years are clearly a band at the top of their game, and the music runs the full gamut of punk, from pop tinged power chords and roaring riffs to acoustic ballads. There isn't a single dip on the album, and you get the impression Dan Campbell could have written a concept album about pop tarts and it'd absolutely slap.
As it is, the lyrics Campbell provided are the standout here. It's incredibly refreshing to hear an emo/pop punk album about something other than heartbreak, and grief proves a rich vein to mine. The tracks on No Closer to Heaven have a depth lacking from more generic "she broke my heart" emo songs, the personal subject matter adding an honesty and vulnerability that never feels forced or false. Campbell's singing here is never short of anguished, from wistful whispers to forcing the air out of his lungs to finish refrains, the latter effect reminiscent of Gerard Way at his most exasperated.
No Closer to Heaven is a triumph, and like the best concept albums it's a full listen-through from start to finish every time you hit play, each song building and expanding on the narrative and themes at play. I didn't think I'd find any straight up emo from the mid-to-late teens that would give my tired ears something fresh, but then I'd never heard the Wonder Years.
Favourite Song(s): “A Song for Patsy Cline,” “Cigarettes & Saints”
Emoji Rating: 🚬💀💥😇 out of 5
Dan’s album for Ryan:
Behind The Devil’s Back by Fightstar
TL;DR: Chug chug breakdown solo scream chug chug
Tell Me More: There are two kinds of post-hardcore. One style of it is more screamo-infused brittle and technical and emphasizes melody and emotion I devoured in high school. The other, the one Fightstar operates in — more masculine, less stylish, more rooted in hard rock — is actually the kind of post-hardcore I've typically avoided. This is where Dan and I diverge the most in our music tastes I think.
After getting over that initial hard rock hurdle, I found Fightstar really exciting. On Behind The Devil's Back, they're chugging and thrashing and stomping, cycling through drop-C breakdowns and soaring choruses. The whole thing sounds like the end of the world.
As Dan and I discussed above, it's worth mentioning that this band was founded by Charlie Simpson, who was in the British boy band Busted. Which is wild. This band is definitely not Busted. It also makes me wonder if that’s why Fightstar is so aggressive. Maybe compensating a bit? Which isn’t to say that this isn’t genuine. The album takes itself just seriously enough to sell the whole thing without becoming a bummer.
According to interviews Simpson has done, Behind The Devil's Back was one of the first albums Fightstar wrote collaboratively as a band and also one of the first times they used 7-string guitars and synthesizers. Which makes sense, you can tell they were having fun with this. There's a sense of discovery in the songs, a feeling like that band was challenging themselves to add in more breakdowns, louder choruses, more face-melting riffs. The album is a just a good fucking time, especially on tracks like "Sharp Tongue" and "Animal," where they completely let loose.
Favorite Song(s): “Sharp Tongue,” “Animal,” and “More Human Than Human”
Emoji Rating: 🔮💣🔥💀 out of 5
Ryan: Ok song time. What’s your standout track?
Dan: There are several, it's all killer, no filler, as the obvious pop-punk reference goes. “Cardinals,” “A Song for Patsy Cline,” “Thanks for the Ride,” “Stained Glass Ceilings”...
Ryan: Not sure why I just thought of this but: Sum 41 Of All Fears. Free movie idea.
Dan: Someone write that down. But unless there are rules around what I can't choose. I'm going with “A Song for Patsy Cline”.
Ryan: Oh wow! Interesting but I dig it.
Dan: Oh “Cigarettes and Saints” is another.
Ryan: That’s my personal favorite.
Dan: I would have gone with that, but don't want everyone to cry a lot.
Ryan: That ending on “Cigarettes” is… A LOT.
Dan: It's my personal favourite also. We should be friends.
Ryan: We could try it out yeah I guess.
Dan: Tell me your song first. My friendship is conditional.
Ryan: I’m torn between two very different ones. “Sharp Tongue” is a wild kick in the face of an opener. But “More Human Than Human” is the one I keep coming back to. “Animal” and “Sink With The Snakes” were highlights for me as well. I think the Fightstar songs I like best are when they decide to go all in on a mood and style.
Dan: I was sitting here like say "Sink with the Snakes", say it, say it!
Ok yeah I’m making the call “More Human Than Human” I’m listening to it again right now and I love it.
Dan: “More Human than Human” is a great track too, totally highlights their range.
Ryan: A ballad that is essentially just various breakdowns seen together.
Dan: What if... we breakdown the breakdown? It's a nice entry point for people who aren't sure how to feel about this band. And the way you should feel is “holy shit I love this band.”
Ryan: Hey hey hey once we hit a thousand subs we can start doing that. We need just enough fans to be huge dicks about it.
Dan: I have two speeds, I'm either sleeping or being a huge dick.
Ryan: If I’m not constantly getting attention I’ll die so we gotta figure something out.
Dan: You should get Twitter. Thanks for reading this far everybody! see you in two weeks.
Ryan: Oh wait. We doing a theme again?
I believe it's your turn to choose. Don't punish me for my words.
Ryan: What if it has to be from a band that was at some point signed to Fueled By Ramen?
Dan: If you send me Twenty One Pilots I'm setting things on fire.