Source: Album Artwork
This album comes with a hefty price tag. Unfortunately for A Loss For Words, this will be their last. One year after the bands’ final show, on Tuesday 27th December, Crises will be released, officially marking the last music we will hear from A Loss For Words after 15 years in the business.
And it really is a shame. This is pop-punk of the gnarlier, less watered-down kind. This is pop-punk for those in the kind of school that spawned Sum-41, Neck Deep, A Day To Remember, and many other bands that point a big neon sign to the “punk” in pop-punk.
The other thing is, this album is pretty good. Even by today’s standards, of pop-punk that has been done in pretty much every conceivable way, Crises still manages to stand out from much of what’s been released even this year. It isn’t anything particularly new, but then again it doesn’t have to be. It’s fun in an “I’ve done this before but this is good so I’ll do it again” kind of way, like rewatching a good film, or going back to visit a video game you haven’t played in years. Opening song ‘Existential Crisis At The Cask ‘n’ Flagon‘ is that immediate hit of shouty-singing vocals and palm-muted guitars that every pop-punk band has, but not all do in as enjoyable a way as this.
The melodies in songs like ‘Boston’s Wayward Song‘ are about as good as they get in this kind of music, and though the instrumentation behind them is fairly simple it’s played with a kind of heart that makes their simplicity not just expected, but necessary.
As we already said, it’s a shame that A Loss For Words are calling it a day here. We can’t help but feel like if Crises was their first album, and they were releasing it this year, they would be absolutely massive in no time at all. Sadly that is the way the music industry happens sometimes. If you’re a pop-punk fan you’re doing yourself and the scene a disservice if you don’t listen to this record.
