This Legend

It's In The Streets

Written by: TL on 14/01/2015 17:06:58

California quartet This Legend emerged with a bit of a spark last year, announcing itself as the new home of former Yellowcard veterans drummer Longineu Parsons III and guitarist Ben Harper, and debuting swiftly with a full album's worth of tunes in form of "It's In The Streets". Joining bassist Steven Neufeld and singer/guitarist Chris Castillo, who formerly played in HeyMike! and Stanley And The Search respectively, the guys haven't changed their style too much though. For while This Legend is obviously a violinist short of being Yellowcard, the band is still very much sunny, Californian pop-punk, and they quickly caught the eye of NOFX guitarist El Hefe and released the album on the label he co-owns with his wife, Cyber Tracks, in November of last year.

The album has a carefree West Coast pop-punk feel, most similar to New Found Glory in mood, yet the similar, sugary vocals (that you could also compare to Man Overboard) are also contrasted with some of the more forceful style that bands like Forever Came Calling, Neck Deep and The Story So Far have deployed in the starker takes on the genre you tend to hear from East Coast bands in particular. Things open with leading single "Lyrics With My Pen", which is somewhat banal in the lyrics department - "But then I hear the music in my heaaaad, scratch these lyrics with my pen, you don't know what this does for me", yet the melody is as catchy as intended and starts the record on a solid note.

The following tracks "Feeling Like I Should" and "Holiday From Crazy" also do quite well, flashing frequent tempo changes, and the latter in particular is perhaps the catchiest song on offer, with a verse that hints slightly towards "American Idiot" and a mid-tempo chorus that almost feels like what the young dudes in Stickup Kid did so well on their most recent album "Future Fire". Generally, This Legend clearly has a signature sound that they aren't afraid to throw around, and you could probably make vague comparisons to every band in the genre on your way through the album. "It's In The Streets" could sound a bit like a Wonder Years song, though without the same feeling of depth and urgency, while "My City" runs at you at a speed that's pretty blazing, almost in Caleb Lionheart territory.

Moving into the second half of the album however, it does start to feel like This Legend have already demonstrated what they have to offer at this point. Their veteran take on pop-punk is clearly apparent, and there's more variety from song to song than you find with some of the younger groups in the genre, who have a more limited spectrum of influences to draw on. But with that said it still feels like they're playing it a bit safe, as if they've wanted to play pop-punk as the sum of what it's been to them so far, yet without any noticeable ambitions of doing something progressive or novel with it. Even at a reasonable twelve tracks, the album can thus start to feel a bit drawn out in its second half, fading to a form of modestly enjoyable background music, more so than the kind of listen that seizes you consistently the whole way through. If you can't get enough pop-punk in general though, then the group's "if it ain't broken" approach is probably still going to be right up your alley.

7

Download: Lyrics With My Pen, Holiday From Crazy
For The Fans Of: New Found Glory, Forever Came Calling, Man Overboard, Neck Deep
Listen: facebook.com/ThisLegendMusic

Release date 11.11.2014
Cyber Tracks

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