Hit The Lights

Invicta

Written by: PP on 08/03/2012 14:28:57

I guess none of us should be surprised that the third Hit The Lights album "Invicta", their first full length in four years, moves the band even further into the mainstream and away from everything that made this band good in the first place. The writing has been on the wall for ages, the jury's been out for three years now, and the band has consistently showed signs of regression / progression (depending on which way you look at it, I suppose) from poppy pop punk into something that nobody could associate with the term punk anymore with a straight face.

"Gravity" is perhaps the most typical example of what's wrong with "Invicta". It's lead by a superfluous pop melody designed for the mainstream crowd with simple chord progressions and an even simpler vocal melody during the chorus. It's intended to be infectious, but it's only so to some extent. It's one of those ultra safe, major label sponsored songs that's been OK'd by the executives to act as the lead single on the album to lure in unsuspecting people...except thanks to the internet, people will have checked out the album beforehand and know better to not fall into the 80s and 90s trap any longer. That it is the best song on the album is telling of the quality of other songs on the record, which are, to save you time, extremely boring, nothingsaying, and predictable. Even if you come in as a Hit The Lights fan you can't possibly think these songs are good in comparison to "Skip School, Start Fights" from four years ago. It's even worse if you start comparing to their bouncy, fun, and energetic debut album "This Is A Stickup...Don't Make It A Murder"; those are pretty much polar opposite words than what should be used to describe "Invicta".

It's hard to believe "Invicta" was written by the same people who also wrote songs like "Bodybag" and "The Call Out (You Are The Dishes)", even when taking into consideration that Hit The Lights have always stretched the pop part of pop punk wide open. It's a boring album full of pop rock ballads that are found dime-a-dozen in the mainstream music culture. It basically flushes everything that was good about Hit The Lights down the toilet and replaces the elements with over-ambitious songs, boring pop ballads and instantly forgettable melodies. Anyone who calls this pop punk needs to be slapped, because it's exactly sappy records like "Invicta" that give the genre a bad name. Avoid.

4

Download: Gravity
For the fans of: Simple Plan, Boys Like Girls, Cartel, The Maine
Listen: Bandcamp

Release date 31.01.2012
Razor & Tie Records

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