The Paper Champions
End.Transmission EP
Reason Y Records
Like a plane crash, End.Transmission EP by The Paper Champions is equally mesmerizing and something that is constantly talked about; or at least it should be. This blistering four-song disc packs as much punch as anything that chart-toppers Taking Back Sunday or Hawthorne Heights have done and they cover only one topic over the 16 minutes and 16 seconds that it takes to get from beginning to end: Amelia Earhart.
The opening minute quickly summarizes what the entire album is about with old transmissions sounding over a blistering beat and the repeated chorus of “Can you hear Amelia?” Followed by “Waves apologize/ Cast in vain for memory/ Static pockets fill the air/ Salt and strategy.”
Earhart’s inspiration permeates the lyrics and even the liner notes with her final broadcast transcribed on the inside cover. On “Oceanbound” they poetically capture what probably happened to Earhart in the chorus “Mayday – It’s a perfect fall, A curtain call tonight.”
Lyrically End.Transmission EP is nothing short of magical. The Paper Champions could take on any emo-punk band and send them running for their mothers with lines like “Endless seas and graying skies/ 1000 feet and lullabies/ Heaven’s overhead” from the title track and “My bleeding heart worn on my sleeve/ Just rip the pages out and read that story back to me.” All four songs flow together making the EP sound more like a composition with four movements than four songs thrown together to make an album. They rock. They write killer songs. And this is the second best concept album of the past decade (next to Green Day’s American Idiot). The Paper Champions are a band to look watch out for in the coming years.
The Paper Champions: http://www.thepaperchampions.com
