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Simple Plan

Simple Plan

Written by: PP on 05/03/2008 01:16:56

Canadian pop punkers Simple Plan have had an awful lot of crap shoveled their way for years now, and to be fair, some of the criticism has been perfectly justified. Pretty much every single song on their debut album revolved around overdramatic stories about breaking up with girls, and they were delivered on a simplistic, medium paced pop punk platform. On their sophomore then, the band progressed into a sillier direction, writing songs like \"Shut Up\", which, although infectiously catchy and bouncy, had little substance that could be credited as artistic talent. But that criticism aside, these guys have always been able to put on a fantastic live show full of energy and colours. The kind that\'ll get even the most stubborn Simple Plan hater nodding and clapping along. That\'s what happened to me anyway. Fast forward two years and we\'re here, at the review of Simple Plan\'s self-titled, third album.

From the first moments of \"Simple Plan\" the fan and critic alike is treated to a whole another spectrum of sound, one that we haven\'t heard from the band before. While it was fair to say that their bouncy pop punk was mainstream in the past, it\'s never quite as obviously so as on this record. The production is glossier than ever, which has cost Pierre Bouvier (vocals) his naive innocence that made many of his songs so touching. Instead, he now sounds like a modern day Billie Joe Armstrong wannabe, just with a whinier voice. This overproduction has removed any character the two fast songs \"Take My Hand\" and \"Time To Say Goodbye\" otherwise could have had.

The song structures have also changed radically. There are far more ballads on the record, and one quick listen to a song like \"Save You\" or the piano-ballad \"I Can Wait Forever\" makes you wonder if Keane and Sixpence None The Richer were among the main influences for this album. While it isn\'t a crime including ballads as such, it becomes one when about half of your album can be classified as \'ballads\'. The second problem is that most of these songs sound like something out of MTV\'s offering from eight years ago, when pseudo-rock bands like Lifehouse, Stereophonics and The Verve were dominating the airwaves.

The last nail in the coffin of \"Simple Plan\" in my eyes is the fourth track \"Your Love Is A Lie\", which starts off with a riff/vocal dynamic almost identical to Green Day\'s \"Boulevard For Broken Dreams\". The similarity is so astounding that I keep scourging the news every day to find something about a Green Day lawsuit against Simple Plan. Too bad Green Day did the song ten times better as well.

To tell you the truth, the whole album has an \"American Idiot\" vibe to it. Simple Plan are noticeably trying to re-create Green Day\'s mega-success, which I find a great shame, because Simple Plan is certainly at their best when they\'re in their original element, the bouncy, energetic, joyous pop punk influenced by their roots in their first band Reset. Today, it\'s painfully clear how out-of-synch Simple Plan is with what sounds good and what doesn\'t, and \"Simple Plan\" certainly doesn\'t.

Download: Take My Hand, Time To Say Goodbye
For the fans of: Green Day, Keane, Sixpence None The Richer
Listen: Myspace
Buy: iTunes

Release date 12.02.2008
Lava Records