Review: Quarterbacks - Quarterbacks
By Brittany Oblak, News Editor
[Team Love; 2015]
Rating: 8/10
Key Tracks: “Usual,” “Center,” “Never Go”
It seems Quarterbacks have reminded us of the perfect pop-punk album recipe: short, sweet and to the point. Their debut self-titled LP is a stringy, spastic serenade that makes up for lack of time with substance. Despite this album clocking out at barely 20 minutes, it’s just long enough for the New York trio to take you through the tortured-love dialogue of 20-somethings. Love isn’t the only subject up for discussion, though. Missing/hating your hometown, not knowing your next move, neurosis and all the other ideas that agonize angsty Millennials are accounted for, too.
“I have to forget your number ‘cause its been getting me in trouble / Last night on the phone I said I was OK alone / Here I am again outside of your door / Predictably yours” is the first line that ushers in the opener “Usual.” With gutsy guitars underlining the sweet voice of vocalist Dean Engle spewing straightforward lines, this introduction creates the anxious atmosphere in which Engle exists.
Pathos-packed “Center” takes the listener through tight percussion and guitars trembling with neurosis as audible as Engle’s brain, delivering a closing line that will have one spiraling into bleak sadness: “I recognize that love is mostly situational.” It’s delivered so quickly it could kill the listener’s insides before they even realize it.
Millennial trials and tribulations that can be found in good and ghastly pop-punk alike live in the track “Weekend.” “I kind of hate the town where I live / As soon as I leave I start to miss it” is the siren song of a subculture obsessed with resolving the dissonance it feels between aching to make it out of the hometown and being homesick.
This continues in “Simple Songs” as Engle sputters over guitars straight out of a Minutemen release, “I wish there was something higher I could subscribe to / To give my life some direction / But I don’t have a life plan / I just have this little band.” Again highlighting the kind of uncertainty that gets specifically attributed to Generation Y.
There are two parts to the track “Never Go:” the slow-to-build intro where Engle reflects on not being able to remember life before he was upstaged by a certain girl, and the upbeat second half where he confirms, “This absence of a past isn’t hard to understand / Because my life began when you first held my hand.” The sonic arrangement is perfect in illustrating the way that meeting someone can change a person’s life, and how different the world looks thereafter. It’s so earnest and swoon-worthy that it raises the questions of how his muse could ever think of leaving his side.
Save the overly nasal voice and corny catchphrases for someone more mediocre; Quarterbacks bring it home, and even scene veterans could stand to take note. Sonically channeling Descendents, a band that truly pioneered pop-punk, they bring memorable melodies over a rapid-fire of quick riffs and avoid tiresome punk and pop platitudes.
Their lyrics are honest, reflective and neurotic, but without the off-putting self-involved egos that have become so commonplace in their peers. Not taciturn but still containing leagues of emotional depth while remaining fun and frisky, Quarterbacks’ first LP is a refreshing and redeeming lifeboat in a sea of stale pop-punk stigma that will have one saying, ”I’LL NEVER LET GO (Jack).” Hopefully this is a harbinger of things to come from these New York natives.
