Drunk Enough To Dance - Bowling For Soup

...you don't need to be drunk to dance - put it on to bounce around to when you're happy or to pick yourself up when you're down.

Putting a strict 'music critic' hat on, this only gets 4* because it's generally simple, formulaic and repetitive. Their follow-up A Hangover You Don't Deserve was a bit more varied, but not quite as consistent (though still very good). If any pop-punk album deserves 5* I can't really think of many better candidates. ...
...'Greatest Day') but generally they're just slightly less memorable than the others. If you assess this as simply what it is - good fun - then it's a great album.

p.s. I believe newer versions of the album also feature the 'Punk Rock 101' single as bonus tracks, including their cover of Flock Of Seagulls' 'I Ran (so Far Away)'. While the extra songs may make the album a bit long for what it is, they're certainly worth including, so ... more

I'm not really much of a fan of punk music. It's not that I can't stand it, I'll generally listen to most of it without complaint, it's just nothing's really grabbed me. It's dangerous to over-generalise of course, but I tend to find most of it rather samey and have a 'take it or leave it' attitude.

Consequently, I missed out of Bowling For Soup for quite a while. I first heard of them around their Let's Do It For Johnny album, which I almost bought but didn't quite. A while later, must have been around April-May 2002 I think, I saw that they were even playing a gig in Oxford - supporting British ska-punk band [spunge] - and again I was tempted to see them, but didn't.

I was kicking myself later that summer, when they scored their mainstream breakthrough, as the lead single off this album, 'Girl All The Bad Guys Want', broke into the Top Five and was all over the radio. It's a typical 'Teenage Dirtbag'-style unrequited love song, and without the happy ending either, but it's done with such a tongue-in-cheek sense of humour that it can't fail to pick you up.

I hear some people generically refer to bands like Bowling For Soup as 'nu-metal', but that completely misses the point, for example Less Than Jake's 'All My Best Friends Are Metalheads' is about how *different* they are. Similarly, 'Girl…' was another tale of the poor little punk kid being overlooked in favour of macho metal men (at a time when nu-metal was rife). I could quote the whole song, but this gives you a flavour:

"8 o'clock Monday night and I'm waiting
To finally talk to a girl a little cooler than me…
She's watching wrestling
Creaming over tough guys
Listening to rap metal…
It's like a bad movie
She's looking through me
If you were me you'd be
Screaming 'someone shoot me'…
She'll never know that I'm the best that she'll never have…
Does a mullet make a man?"

I loved that song, partly because it had some personal resonance at the time, but mostly just because it was a really great pop-punk song - and, as I said, fun and upbeat, despite the theme. Still I didn't rush out to pick up the album though, as I was worried they'd be one hit wonders. When I did finally get it, I was totally wrong.

The rest of the album took a couple of plays, but I tend to find that's the way when you buy an album with one song you already know and like - you're always waiting for that one, and don't really give the rest much chance.

Musically, it's fairly standard pop-punk fare - a bit heavier than Blink 182, perhaps more like the Offspring. It's almost uniformly high-paced and energetic, with a happy, bouncy feel to it, not unlike Dropkick Murphys or Bouncing Souls at times. I think there's some old school metal influence in there too, not that the band sound at all like that, but I think there's a touch of that sensibility about the music somehow - as if an 'ironic' solo would never really be surprising. (That their follow up album included a tribute to Whitesnake on '1985' further substantiates this suspicion).

The songs are, fairly standardly, just over three minutes each, with only the more reflective 'Where To Begin' being significantly longer - and a change in direction musically. Other than that, it's only the (semi?) acoustic bonus track 'World Falling Apart' - which sounds a bit like All-American Rejects, or even Good Charlotte's 'Emotionless' - that dramatically departs from formula and slows the pace. Assessing the album critically, a lack of variation is definitely a possible fault, and if you don't like the songs the fact that they're all much the same certainly won't help.

Punk rock hasn't ever been about great musicianship, however. This album has bags of energy and enthusiasm, but what I really like are the lyrics. They have the slight quirkiness of bands like Weezer and Barenaked Ladies; although Bowling For Soup don't say anything quite as clever, the songs are filled with odd perspectives and humorous one-liners. I think it's this (rather than the music) that means they can write about dysfunctional relationships, without becoming depressing, as say Lit or Everclear can.

In fact, in the vein of 'Girl…', it's almost entirely about the problems of love, but without being serious. The album covers forbidden love ("I can still see your dad / Running after me with a shovel in his hand / I don't remember much after that…"), break ups ("It's not you it's just all of the times I missed out / On sleeping with your roommate every time you passed out"), the one that got away ("She said she had a new friend… She says he's really OK / I really hope that he's gay") and more being ignored ("Why does it always seem to me / Girls like that can't ever find someone / Someone like me").

If you want a light-hearted look at the trials of love, then this is the album for you. If you're a fan of Offspring, Wheatus, Good Charlotte, Weezer, Green Day and Simple Plan, this may also be for you. B4S don't take themselves seriously, but with this you don't need to be drunk to dance - put it on to bounce around to when you're happy or to pick yourself up when you're down.

Putting a strict 'music critic' hat on, this only gets 4* because it's generally simple, formulaic and repetitive. Their follow-up A Hangover You Don't Deserve was a bit more varied, but not quite as consistent (though still very good). If any pop-punk album deserves 5* I can't really think of many better candidates. There are a couple of slightly weaker links ('Surf Colorado', 'Greatest Day') but generally they're just slightly less memorable than the others. If you assess this as simply what it is - good fun - then it's a great album.

p.s. I believe newer versions of the album also feature the 'Punk Rock 101' single as bonus tracks, including their cover of Flock Of Seagulls' 'I Ran (so Far Away)'. While the extra songs may make the album a bit long for what it is, they're certainly worth including, so check the track listing when buying.

[I think I paid £6.99 for the old version. For latest prices, see Ciao's shopping links]

 

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