Source: Album Artwork
It’s 2017, and no surprise to anyone that there’s yet another pop punk band trying to make it big. The US has been churning them out for decades, while Britain has trailed behind until very recently when bands such as Neck Deep and Moose Blood have garnered all the attention. The lineup of North America’s prestigious Vans Warped Tour has never seen so much UK talent on its stages than in the last couple of years, but can we really live up to the likes of Blink-182 and Green Day or do we just not have it in us?
Catch Fire hail from Nottingham, and are no stranger to the stages at Rock City, Rescue Rooms et al. The Midland city is home to one of the biggest independent music scenes in the country, so it only makes sense that it would produce some of the most determined artists of our time. Catch Fire certainly fall in to that category, although it’s a little disheartening to see them trying to break in to a genre that is just so overdone in this day and age. Their upcoming EP A Love That I Still Miss is incredibly well put together, but lacks originality which is vital when playing in an oversubscribed market.
There’s a short instrumental intro entitled ‘Poise‘, before Catch Fire gets down to business with ‘Curfew‘. It ticks every box on the ‘how to write a pop punk song’ checklist but offers very little else otherwise. Further on in the EP is ‘Reality‘, which also features your typical pop-punk breakdowns and lyrics. It’s another cookie-cutter track, but has more substance to it than its predecessors and becomes one of the most defining moments of the entire EP. Your heart will bleed along with lead singer Miles Kent as he lets out all his frustrations.
Overall, its clear that Catch Fire have put a lot of effort and thought in to A Love That I Still Miss. If anything has let it down, it’s more their chosen genre than anything to do with their talent or determination, but it will be interesting to see what they can do with full-length time to prove that they are more than ready to take on the cut-throat pop punk scene.
