Much The Same

Everything Is Fine

Written by: PP on 05/01/2020 16:09:18

Chicago-based punk rockers Much The Same made a splash in the early 2000s with one EP and two full-lengths aimed squarely at the same punk rock crowd that relishes in NUFAN albums and thinks Sweden's the best in the world putting out skate punk records (No Fun At All, Adjusted, Millencolin, Satanic Surfers, etc). Then they went quiet for about a decade or so, before returning in 2015 for a few shows and tours here and there. In the meantime, their name has been growing amongst the skate punk crowd given how good those early albums on A-F Records and Nitro Records were, to an extent where they are now rightly referred to as skate punk legends.

"Everything Is Fine" is their third album and their first one in thirteen years, and fortunately, not much has changed. The band is still basically a No Use For A Name clone for better or worse, delivering classic, melancholia-driven vocals atop sleek bass-lines and chord-based skate punk guitars. Basically, it's classic melodicore as it was presented in the late 90s / early 2000s in the genre's heydey, echoing the likes of Millencolin, Pulley, Belvedere in the process. A few technical leads add flavor to breakneck speed skate punk with infectiously catchy vocals driving home songs like "Homecoming" and "You Used To Have A Garden". "Making Friends"-era NUFAN fans should be particularly happy for this one, but in reality, it feels like a mixture between "Life On A Plate"-era Millencolin, some Pulley and Belvedere, and a boatload of NUFAN to top it off.

Can you ask for more as a skate punk fan? It's the golden 90s sound all over again, delivered with crisp production that avoids the overpolish trap nicely. Catchy hooks, big choruses, and high tempo all the way through delivered exactly the way you want it. Nothing more, nothing less. If anything, in the absence of NUFAN, Much The Same have written a solid piece of melodicore / skate punk that Tony Sly would've been proud of to have as his own.

8

Download: You Used To Have A Garden, Homecoming, Passengers, Burner, Haunted
For the fans of: No Use For A Name, No Fun At All, Millencolin, This Is A Standoff, Atlas Losing Grip, Belvedere, Pulley, Craig's Brother
Listen: Facebook

Release date 26.07.2019
Lockjaw Records / Thousand Island Records / Pee Records

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