Future Idiots

Future Idiots

Written by: TL on 01/12/2012 13:36:54

Questions abound this Saturday's first review: Why isn't PP reviewing a Future Idiots record? He reviewed their recent claim-to-fame Blink 182 re-imagining didn't he? Moreover, aren't they exactly his type of band? And didn't their self-titled actually come out before "Neighborhoods & Morningwoods"? Why is it only getting reviewed now? - All of these are fair questions that I am actually not going to bother answering, mostly because the answers are trivial. But how about a review of the album?

For those who only recently became aware of Future Idiots through the infamy and audacity that surrounded their attempt at showing Blink how to be Blink, allow me to state for the record that "Future Idiots" is actually the fifth LP in an already steady stream of releases from a band that have seemingly endeavoured to become Sweden's most dependable pop-punk outfit since their formation in 2005. Like on each of the previous records I've heard from Future Idiots, they sound exactly the same this time around, stubbornly rehashing classic pop-punk virtues from the 1998-2001 period and doing everything they can to sound as much as possible like the pop-punk greats that were blowing up around then (Blink, Sum 41, Millencolin etc. etc.)

So as a critic, I should of course loathe this rising institution of regressive musicianship and silly, adolescent lyrics. The strange fact is that I just can't. If I were to describe Future Idiots' music with two words, "stupidly catchy" would be my choice, and the average material on here is is so much so that I find it nigh on impossible to not be endeared. "Future Idiots" does not have an original bone in its body, but it's just too hard not to smile at the packed-with-Star-Trek-references "Seven Of Nine", or not to sing along as "Christina Hendricks" moves from a bridge shamelessly ripped off from Chris Brown's "With You" to a chorus with lyrics that go: "Oh, I need your boobs, I gotta squeeze your boobs, your boobs all over my face tonight, I want your boobs all over my face tonight [...] When I'm done, I wanna fall asleep between your boobs, I wanna fall asleep between your boobs, I wanna build a nest between your chest".

Having succumbed to such cheeky charm, it's hard to summon up scepticism when "Hymn Of Alcohol" sounds more than a little like The Offspring's "The Kids Aren't Alright" or when "Failure" sees the band at a massively corny, pseudo-serious moment. It's just smartly effective in all of its admittedly low charm. And that's the short of it really. "Future Idiots" will revolutionise absolutely nothing, and many of its songs will likely be forgotten as quickly as they catch on, but I'll be damned if I can imagine anyone not having a smiling good time listening to it. You'd have to be ailed by a considerably more serious case of musical elitism than mine at least.

Download: Christina Hendricks, Failure, Seven Of Nine, Hymn Of Alcohol, Katy Perry
For The Fans Of: Zebrahead, Bowling For Soup, Millencolin, older Blink 182, Sum 41 and The Offspring
Listen: facebook.com/futureidiotsmusic

Release Date 29.05.2012
Pacific Ridge Records

Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.