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Hawk Nelson

Crazy Love

Written by: PP on 24/02/2011 05:37:49

Hawk Nelson are apparently a pretty popular bunch in the Christian music circles, having gained notoriety and popularity there with four previous albums prior to "Crazy Love", but this scribe isn't convinced by their overtly standard and generic approach to ultra poppy pop punk. The preachy God-praising lyrics are already a drain on the listener, such as when the singer builds an entire song around worshiping God and resisting temptation while everyone else is out partying, having fun, and generally living their lives as they were designed to be lived, but the one aspect where the band fails utterly and falls flat is in lacklustre songwriting.

The record kicks off with an immense energy release in "Tally-Ho", a hyper-bouncy, infectiously catchy, fist-pumping, high-octane pop punk track, at first fooling the new listener into thinking Hawk Nelson will be contributing to the scene big time throughout the release. The following track "Your Love Is A Mystery" is pretty good too with a memorable chorus, but from here onwards about 60-70% of the album consists of generic, boring pop rock you'll have heard over and over again. That wouldn't be such a problem had the songs been catchy like the plague, but that just isn't the case, except in the rare occasion when tempo is kicked up big time like on "Fraud", "Skeleton" and perhaps also "Joanna", where the band sounds quite a bit like newer Mxpx material.

But a few decent tracks just isn't enough to make up for the slowdown to a crawl where the band goes through the ABCs of preachy pop rock smack down the middle of the album, killing any momentum the strong start may have given the band. Sounding like a balladic version of Good Charlotte isn't exactly going to cut it in as crowded field as pop punk, even in the corner concentrating on furthering the pop element rather than the punk one. Want my advice? There are far better bands out there, so skip Hawk Nelson and leave 'em to the Christian fanatics.

Download: Skeleton, Tally-Ho, Fraud
For the fans of: Mxpx, Eleventyseven, Everyday Sunday, Good Charlotte
Listen: Myspace

Release date 08.02.2011
BEC Recordings / Tooth & Nail Records