How time flies, huh? It seems like just yesterday the Bouncing Souls were scrappy newcomers, playing tiny shows to support self-released albums. Then you look again and they're seasoned veterans, playing the big stages on the Warped tour. They're putting out a retrospective DVD, for crying out loud! (DVD's must be really cheap to make, because it seems like everybody and their gay uncle is doing them these days.)
"Anchors Aweigh" is the Bouncing Souls' third record on Epitaph, their sixth overall. Even though you may think you've heard some of these songs before, the band still has energy to burn, and when they're not breaking the sound-barrier they manage to stretch out in some interesting directions.
"Kids and Heroes" starts with a jangly guitar arpeggio, over which Greg Attonito bemoans the fall of a figurehead: "Hey, where have you gone? / You used to be the one we looked up to." He later asks "How high was your price / And was it worth it?" I can think of a half-dozen songs with this theme without leaving my chair; selling out is as obsessive a subject for punk bands as the beach was for the Beach Boys. The Souls come out ahead this time, though; "Kids" boasts some chiming "boys of summer" guitar in there among the power-chords, and Attonito, perhaps recognizing the well-worn path he's treading, shifts the focus to himself at the song's end, and the message we're left with is, basically, be your own hero.
"Sing Along Forever" trots out another classic, the appalling music problem.
Over a crunchy bassline Attonito berates his radio, saying "Give me a reason to care / And I'll sing along forever." Good stuff; music can be powerful, it can be redeeming and celebratory, and this song's complaint is one many of us have when we're forced to listen to KROC. I wanted more from "Sing Along", but at a brisk ninety seconds the song is content to shout and get out.
That's a recurring problem on this album - the fast songs blur by in a sound-alike rush, usually managing to throw out annoying stock phrases like "to the bitter end" and "see your real beauty." It's the ones that put the brakes on that get noticed. Take "Night Train", an almost sweeping song with marching beats, big, ringing chords, and soaring harmony vocals. A song about striking out in search of adventure, "Night Train" takes up another timeworn subject, chasing your dream.
"Todd's Song" is an elegiac ballad, complete with a string section, built around Pete "The Pete" Steinkopf's lush guitar figures. Attonito's dramatic vocals work well here. In fact, the guy salvages a lot of his band's weaker material with sheer muscle - his range and control are impressive. Again, though, "Todd's Song" clocks in at two minutes and deserves two more.
The album's title track picks up the "chase your dream" thread again, this time hitching it to a sailing metaphor. The song never really finds its legs, but it does conjure a romantic image: the road-hardened, spike-haired punk band heaving off down La Cienega in their Econoline to seek their fortune in the wide world.
"I Get Lost", easily the best song on the record, is a powerhouse of chunky downpicking that puts Attonito's voice front and center. The way he belts out "Make the best of whatever comes my way!" is just great. There's some more of that "boys of summer guitar, too. (I feel like I'm somehow making Don Henley richer, but there's just no better way to describe it.)
The Souls don't reinvent the hubcap on "Anchors Aweigh", but they're still showing plenty of life six albums in. And that's what lifers should do, isn't it?
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