Mom Jeans

Sweet Tooth

Written by: PP on 15/04/2022 01:59:40

Mom Jeans, whose members also feature in funk-rock collective Just Friends, have been writing emotionally tinged, sugarcoated pop punk since 2016. Their latest album "Sweet Tooth" is another upbeat addition to the collection, featuring mostly straight-forward pop punk with a few quirky variations attached for good measures, such as keyboards, horn instruments, and lots of swear words, apparently.

Catchy melodies channeled through sugary clean vocals are the primary methodology at use here. It's a summery sound that doesn't differentiate quite enough from the rest of the genre, despite the occasional chanted backing vocals, hand claps, or the Jeff Rosenstock style album highlight "Hippo In The Water". Here, the band switches it up to a noisy, slightly cacophonic expression that's loud and rowdy in all the right ways to result in a fast-paced melody explosion. It's a shame there isn't more of this on the record.

Elsewhere, "White Trash Millionaire" resembles Talk Show Host given its quirky, wide-open style. Here, the horn instruments add flavor to the background, again distinguishing Mom Jeans from countless other peers in the genre. "Luv L8r" has Set Your Goals vibes, and a fast-paced vocal segment that brings back eerie memories of "Work In Progress" that launched their easycore classic "Mutiny!". "Anime Theme Song" features a huge keyboard melody and up-then-down vocal hooks that take you back to old Fall Out Boy records, another positive aspect of the record.

At the same time, songs like "What's Up?", "Graduating Life", and "Sugar Rush" are rather anonymous, falling in the dime-a-dozen pop punk song category where you feel like you've heard it all before dozens of times. They're just too similar to matter in the grand scheme of things, despite "Sweet Tooth" being by no means a bad record overall. "Crybaby (On The Phone)" follows this pattern. It rolls forward on autopilot without ever capturing your attention fully. It needs to do more before Mom Jeans can challenge the best bands in the genre. For now, it's a decent record, but one that's lacking in flair.

7

Download: Hippo In The Water, Something Sweet, White Trash Millionaire
For the fans of: Talk Show Host, Yellowcard, Jeff Rosenstock
Listen: Facebook

Release date 25.02.2022
Banquet Records

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