Allister – Last Stop Suburbia

Allister, a band I shall not soon forget.  This four piece band form a little suburb of Chicago have done a wonderful job on their second release (their debut being Dead Ends And Girlfriends), creating fast paced catchy pop-punk music, which you just have to listen to over and over again. The subject nature has also mature considerably since their debut album too, instead of singing songs like Jacob Thinks I’m Gay and Pictures, they have songs like Better Late Then Forever, Camouflage and Somewhere On Fullerton (a tribute to a punk venue that will shortly be closed down in Chicago, The Fireside Bowl). Obviously, as the band as grown, their music has grown as well.  This quartet, which has Tim and Chris Rogner on guitar and vocals, Scott Murphy on bass and vocals and then Dave Rossi on drums, has made an album here which will be talked about for a very long time. But before I talk about all the songs, let me tell you about all the special features on the album…

As you pop the album into your computer you will be surprised at all the snazzy stuff that you can do. First it installs this cool Universal Media Player, that is a cool media player that plays your cd, but it gives you so many options! First, on the left had side of the golden player you see the cool album cover, and next to that a little option menu. Here you can change your preferences (pretty boring stuff) and then the way it shows your time. You can either have it count down the time in the song or album, or count up, ya its not big, but I like it! Now a bit more to the right there’s a arrow pointing down where you can pick any song you want to listen to. Under the controls there is a little picture of an eye. One you click that you can pick either to watch a video of them live in LA during Warped Tour (where they playRadio Player and Overrated) or look at around 16 or 17 pictures of the band. In the player there is also links to the official site, dtr.com and Allister’s bio. The only bad thing is that it does not work onWindows XP. But you can still watch the video and see the pictures if you right click the drive and click explore. Its pretty easy to find after that! Now, onto the songs. I wont talk about them all since there are 16, but I’ll talk about my favorites.

They start off the album with Scratch, a pretty cool song, but I’m gonna skip it and tell you about one of my two favorites songs, Radio Player. This song is the favorite song of a lot of people who I talked to. It is just about cranky up the music and leaving the radio on all night long. Although, having the least amount of lyrics, it is still not nearly the shortest song.  It has a fast pace throughout the entire song intill around 2:20 and it slows down, and then Scott says the chorus as the beat changes, ten it goes quick and picks up again to the old beat. Just a great song, with great beats and catchy lyrics. Flypaper is the third song, pretty good beat and more complicated lyrics, with two people singing in the chorus. Overrated is the fourth song and probably the most popular, being played in everything that is advertising the album. Its another fast paced song with catchy lyrics and cool “Bops” in the background.

Better Late Then Never probably has the most lyrics in the album, crammed into 2:40. The One That Got Away was originally supposed to be one of the slower songs on the album, but Dave kept on speeding it up and it ended up being one of the quickest songs. This song also features one of the only parts that features the vocals of Dave, with a 1,2,3,4! before the song. Its about someone who had a girlfriend and they broke up. There are more girls out there, but he’ll always think of the one that got away. Racecars is a good song, I absolutely love the chorus! Its one I’ve listened to many times so far, and one I will listen to again.

Matchsticks is a fast paced song about a girl, I could go a bit into detail, but I want to talk about my favorite song, Camouflage. This song sounds completely different then the rest of the album. It doesn’t have many lyrics, but the lyrics are powerful ones. Its about someone just holding back and not being bold, watching his life go by a day at a time. Its a slower song then the rest with a melow sound, which just sounds amazing! Then there is Don’t Think Twice and Somewhere On Fullerton. The latter of the two can be heard on the Welcome To The Family compilation a long with the 14th song, Stuck.  Both are extremely good songs with catchy lyrics and fast beats. I also think that its cool that they paid tribute to a local punk venue in Somewhere On Fullerton. Westbound and Know It All are well done songs, fast paced, good lyrics, good changes is pace and great beats and riffs.

Waiting For You is a good song, catchy and great beats. It is about someone who has been waiting for someone for a long time, and he/she thinks its time for the person to finally know. The final song, I am not incredibly happy with, None Of My Friends Of Punks has a good idea and once they finally get to the song its good, but I don’t like all the messing around before the song. I know its supposed to be funny, I’m just not laughing.