Album Review: The Max Levine Ensemble - Backlash, Baby
By Van Williams, Contributor
[Lame-O; 2015]
Rating: 4/5
Key Tracks: “Backlash, Baby,” “Panoptic Vision,” “Going Home (Parts 1 & 2)”
Pop punk… a phase? A trend? Something worth defending? Everyone has their own opinion, including the many who scoff at New Found Glory songs now while wearing their Unknown Pleasures t-shirts. What they don’t want people to know is that only a couple short years ago they were posi jumping in their parents’ basement to The Upsides.
This flip-flopping of sorts brings us to the dedication and spirit of The Max Levine Ensemble, who in 2015 have crafted Backlash, Baby--a smart, brilliantly catchy, but ultimately really fun pop punk record.
The record starts strong with “Backlash, Baby,” a bouncy two-minute number that sounds as if they crossed Sugarcult and The Bouncing Souls, which is an interesting combo that works even better than one might think. Towards the midpoint of the record are two of its strongest moments: “Panoptic Vision” and “Big Problems, USA," which are angry without feeling overdone and politically charged, and full of energetic vocals and catchy power chord progressions.
The record continues to bounce along in the same poppy fashion without ever feeling boring or contrived. At the end of an album so pleasing, one can either feel let down or filled with a sense of comfort at how it comes to a close, and this record closes in a very special way. The two songs that close the record are “Going Home Part I”, and “Growing Up Part II”. “Part I” opens with a twinkly, melancholic riff—something that can’t be heard previously on the record. Things quickly pick up again, never letting the listener feel too hopeless or empty. “Going Home Part II” greets the listener with a bouncy bassline and an overall sound similar to the rest of the record, all the while discussing the empty feeling found when searching for new excitement or even old happiness in a place that just feels worn out.
This is a fitting fashion for the record to end in, as it is a feeling a lot of people can relate to. The Max Levine Ensemble have crafted a record to be screamed in a car while driving to work, perhaps even a record a record that could be thrown on in the background of a small get together. However the record is chosen to be played, it is diverse, fun, and something special in a genre some claim to be “childish” or “dead”.
