Far From Finished
Living In The Fallout
Think Fast!
More beer-raising, sing-a-long punk rock coming out of Bean-town. It’s been done, yes, but like California pop-punk and British pop some formulas are just too good to alter.
Far From Finished, with the help of producer Jim Siegel (Dropkick Murphys, The Unseen), has put together one of the catchiest street punk records of the summer in Living In The Fallout. A follow-up to their 2005 debut release, the album was written after the bandmembers defied death when their tour van took them tumbling down a cliff somewhere in the middle of Pennsylvania. Their brush with the end seems to have instilled, within the band, a certain bittersweet gratefulness for the simple things that can be heard in lyrics like, “And it’s like roses and razor blades/ there are scars in this world that are never gonna fade away/ and it’s these moments that make us realize/ maybe life ain’t so fucking bad/ better be grateful for what you have” (from “Roses and Razorblades”).
Between the accessible vocals of Steve Neary and the highly contagious power chord choruses, FFF has similar appeal to melodic street punkers like Bad Religion, Face to Face and the incomparable Social Distortion. Their Boston roots poke through, and this will inevitably bring comparisons to Dropkick Murphys, but they don’t seem to be waving the Irish flag. If anyone they’d be closer in sound to The Street Dogs, but with more of an awareness of pop appeal.
Song highlights? Really the whole damn album is single worthy, but if I had to choose a handful: “Rose and Razorblades,” “A New Tune,” “Disaster” and “Heroes and Ghosts.”
It’s always a good day when I discover a new punk band to throw into my repertoire.
Think Fast! Records: http://www.thinkfastrecords.com
