Reviews

Great Awake

The Flatliners

Released: Sep 4, 2007
Label: Fat Wreck Chords
Reviewed by: William Jones
4 comments

The Flatliners' second full length, The Great Awake, is easily one of the year's biggest disappointments. That's not to say that it's an absolutely terrible album, but for the band that cemented itself (in my mind) as one of Canada's best up-and-coming acts with their debut, Destroy to Create, and was reportedly signed to Fat shortly after Fat Mike heard a few demos from the new release, The Great Awake comes nowhere close to meeting its hype.

With Destroy to Create, these four Toronto punks introduced the world to their own special brand that they called "skunk rock" - a blend of punk and reggae that effectively created an aggressive ska feel, despite the lack of horns in the band's regular lineup. Whatever it was that they were doing, it worked, giving The Flatliners an original sound that they pulled off well, both on record and live. Whatever it was, it's mostly absent from their newest effort.

Instead, it sounds as though the band tried moving their sound forward, but has actually receded to a fairly standard punk sound. The slight reggae infusion reminds me of Rancid at many times, while Chris Cresswell's increased focus on a scratchy, hardcore-inspired yelling of the lyrics this time around makes him sound a hell of a lot like Brendan Kelly of label mates The Lawrence Arms on some of the fast tunes (most notably on "Mother Teresa Chokeslams the World"), and Nuno Pereira of A Wilhelm Scream on the rip-your-face-off fast tracks (most notably in the first minute of "This is Giving Up"). It's all decent punk, inspired by great bands, and it should fit in well on Fat Wreck Chords; yet, none of it works that well for The Flatliners. Not to mention, there's very little ska left in their sound.

There doesn't seem to be a clear focus to The Great Awake, either, or even to each of the 12 songs appearing on the album. Everything has a sort of scatterbrained feeling. Different, random musical phrases are placed next to each other, which, in many cases feel like they have no business in the same song, other than that the lyrics string them together. It's this construction that, pardon the pun, destroys just about everything else the band creates.

The performance seems passionate throughout, and there are even a few of those rare songwriting spots that give you the chills the first time you hear them. "...And the World Files for Chapter 11" may have one of the best scream-along/pit choruses that I've heard in awhile, and there's a bridge scream of "They've got you by the throat!" after the second verse that could have been awesome if it had been brought out just a bit more in the mixing. The final track, "KHTDR," is needlessly long, but right around the two-minute mark, there's a brilliant bit of vocal reggae phrasing that Cresswell handles perfectly. And the lyrics have improved since the last release.

Unfortunately, the many problems of this album are enough to undermine its few gems. While The Great Awake may be a decent punk release, it's definitely not a great Flatliners album. But I'm not writing the band off just yet. Here's to hoping that it's just one misstep in the career of a very young band. And here's to hoping the next one's a bit better.