Bouncing Souls - Anchors Aweigh

Bouncing Souls
Anchors Aweigh
Epitaph Records
Grade: A-

When a band like the Bouncing Souls come out with a new record, expectations are high, very high. Can one of the greatest punk bands in the world improve on previous material? Can they capture the magic? Will they deviate from the path of goodness? And will that deviation be effective? Such were the questions when I put in the latest from this four-piece of NY punk gods (well, technically NJ punk gods). The Bouncing Souls with their early records of The Good, the Bad and the Argyle and Maniacal Laughter placed themselves on the map as a fun time NY punk band with a distinctive sound highlighted by Greg Attonito's exceptional vocals. Songs about 80s movies, late nights of love lorn and liking your mom only laid the foundation for their amazing and always jammed-packed NYC shows. After signing with Epitaph they put out a lackluster self-titled record, but then followed it up with probably their best and one of the best punk albums ever with Hopeless Romantic. That record renewed the faith in the disheartened. Yet their latest How I Spent My Summer Vacation, while consistent and strong, did not deliver the punk that droolers were looking for. Now after much maturity, reflection and effort, the Bouncing Souls offer Anchors Aweigh. As a initial impression to the above, the overall quality is somewhere inbetween Hopeless and Summer Vacation. That is, a great new batch of songs, though not a classic collection. Though besides from Hopeless, most of the other records had several classics though not a motherload - so maybe this isn't far off. The record kicks off with the hard-slamming "Apartment 5F," which travels along the balls-to-the-walls speed and sing-a-longs of early material - also of such characterization is "Born Free," "Better Days," "Highway Kings" and "Blind Date." This is followed by "Kids and Heroes," a more introspective song that has a video on the enhanced cd. While a good song, the video itself is mediocre in excitement, especially after the Weakerthans video selection, with the clips showing the band playing the song. A song like "New Day" provides the hot bass and vocal breakdown that is oh so appealing and really demonstrates Greg's abilities. Other tracks that will likely stick with you after a first listen are "Simple Man," "Night Train" and "I'm From There." What these three tracks have in common is that they are all on the mellow side and demonstrate the Souls abilities and maturity as a band. I remember people freaking out when the Souls started putting "ballads" on their records, but the thing is often those are the best tracks. Besides from the video for "Kids and Heroes," the enhanced cd has some footage of recording the record and a trailer for a Bouncing Souls documentary called Do You Remember? At the end of the day, the Bouncing Souls do deliver a stellar record with Anchors Aweigh. While it doesn't approach the pure awesomeness of Hopeless it is not far behind.