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Bouncing Souls – Comet

Bouncing Souls – Comet

‘It’s the end of the old’, Bouncing Souls singer Greg Attonito sings on ‘Baptized’, the first song on the first real Bouncing Souls full length since 2006′ The Gold Record (2010’s Ghosts On The Boardwalk was a compilation of EPs). So the end of the old? Will Comet shake up the punkrock world? Do the Bouncing Souls have new tricks under their sleeve? No, they don’t. If anything Comet sounds more ‘old’ than I expected.

The Bouncing Souls are still playing the same catchy melodic punk rock. A song like ‘Coin Toss Girl’ could have been on The Gold Record or How I Spent My Summer Vacation. The end of that song has some great guitar parts which do remind me a lot of Bruce Springsteen. Which isn’t a surprise since the Bouncing Souls are from New Jersey as well.

And Comet has more songs like that. The band never reaches the same level as on the last three records they did for Epitaph though. There are some things about this record that I find kind of dissapointing. One thing is the lyrics. The Souls have never been a band of intellectual lyrics but the band managed to touch upon some current issues on previous records. I miss songs like ‘Letter To Iraq’.  Or the more introspect yet real subjects on Anchors Aweigh. And do we really need another Bouncing Souls song about the radio? I guess the band thought so and they came up with ‘Static’.

With ‘We Love Fun’ the band lyrically is back on the same territory as on their earliest material being just a song about having fun and wearing funny pants. I know you can have fun if you get older but to write such a simple and shitty song about it?

On ‘Infidel’ the band takes on a sound much like the most prominent punk band ever to come out of New Jersey: The Misfits. And while it would be nice on a compilation or as a b-side it’s kind of misplaced here.

Comet is partly what one can expect from a Bouncing Souls record. A bit of fun, a bit of melancholy. Great vocals by Greg and some really good melodies. It’s not a record that will win over people who previously disliked the Bouncing Souls, nor it’s a record that will make them lose their loyal followers. They will keep on coming to Bouncing Souls shows because the band still is one of the best punk bands to hit the stage. That said Comet isn’t one of the better Bouncing Souls records, by far.

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