Hey Monday

Hold On Tight

Written by: PP on 31/10/2008 11:58:07

A bouncy female-fronted pop punk band with alternative rock vibes? I know what you're thinking: Paramore version two (or three?), right, or in a worst case scenario, Avril Lavigne, or something equally terrible? You're principally right but still pretty far off, because although Hey Monday does in actuality come across as a band riding on the coattails of Paramore's success, they're infinitely better than Avril Lavigne and quite a bit above Hayley & co as well.

I'm not saying Paramore are bad, because they indeed write pretty catchy pop punk with singalongable choruses and plenty of repeat value. I'm merely stating that they aren't as relevant to the music scene anymore as they are to a channel like MTV that relies almost purely on the looks of the artists performing there. Here's where Hey Monday steps in the picture, then. They've got both the looks and, contrary to what you might believe, the songs as well; "Hold On Tight" portrays Hey Monday as a band who has both their feet on the ground still.

From the whoah-whoah backing vocals of "How You Love Me Now" through the infectious choruses of "Set Off" and the straight forward pop punk of "Obvious", "Hold On Tight" contains a hell of a pop punk package: All songs are irresistibly catchy due to in part by vocalist Cassadee's rather naive worry-free tone in her voice, and partly because the rest of the band are perfectly happy to be playing simple power chorded pop punk by the books.

And here's why it works: instead of trying to sound oh-so-big and 'epic', almost all songs (aside from perhaps the ballad "Candles") are tightly wound together with no useless empty space floating around, leaving their power-pop / pop punk to flourish and grow into a nicely formed shape. A song like "Josey" displays some of the same characteristics that Blink 182 did back in the day; the song sounds so innocent that it's just plain fun to listen and sing along to, which is a pretty good description of the rest of the album as well.

8

Download: Josey, Set Off, Homecoming
For the fans of: Paramore, Blink 182, Fall Out Boy
Listen: Myspace

Release date 07.10.2008
Decaydance Records

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