Reviews

Let me start off by saying that I am not a fan of the direction more visible punk has taken lately of moving towards a folksy roots-ier sound. There’s nothing wrong with being in a folk punk band. There’s nothing wrong with being influenced by folk, alt-country, and other working class rock, but for god sake! Do something new with it! Landing Project is being compared to bands like Against Me!, The Bouncing Souls, and Gaslight Anthem. The comparisons make sense, but the current output by those bands bores me to tears. When did working class punk become synonymous with coming home after a long day at the factory and recording the first half-assed thing you play on your guitar and calling it an album? Remember Cock Sparrer? Hell, remember The Clash!? What happened guys?

Ok, tangent aside, the real reason I bring this up is because Landing Project are doing the new working class thing right. Here Goes Everything isn’t going to make start a circle pit in your living room, but it isn’t going to bore you until you fall asleep and spill your beer in your lap either. This record reminds me a lot of O Pioneers!!! with the production of Reinventing Axl Rose-era Against Me! and some east bay pop-punk vocals. The songs are catchy with some great sing-a-long parts and the record has a really good overall punk feel to it that I feel the recent output of the bands mentioned in the first paragraph have lost sight of.

If Landing Project can help turn this current tide of mediocre punk rock, then we may have a new classic on our hands. From my point of view though, it just isn’t strong enough. Don’t get me wrong, Here Goes Everything is a good record, but it’s spent more time in my CD booklet than it has in my stereo. Keep an eye on these guys though. Hopefully they don’t fall into the same pitfalls that we’ve seen with the current crop of bands producing this type of music.