Broadway Calls – Good Views, Bad News

As a teenager in the late 90’s I used to live for pop-punk.  From Green Day to Blink 182, the 90’s delivered the goods and perfectly matched my carefree adolescent outlook.  The era was rich with hooks and felt like it would last forever.  But then a competing sound emerged from within.  Pop-punk’s new leaders, the emo inspired Taking Back Sundays and purely power-pop sounding All American Rejectsof the world completely, for better or worse, reshaped the genre for the new millennium.

Thus was created a great 90’s and 00’s rivalry.  Being on the 90’s side of the divide, I just sort of stopped listening to the genre, and as I entered my twenties ultimately felt that I had out grown the style.  Sure, I found myself enjoying Green Day’s American Idiot in 2004, and a few others throughout the years, but for all intents and purposes I had moved on – eventually embracing barebones Ramones inspired pop-punk acts like the Lillingtons and Teenage Bottlerocket.  I never thought I’d enthusiastically take to the genre again, but every now and then a band comes along that channels the best of old and new, making a true cross generational hybrid.  In 2009 that band became Broadway Calls, who with the release of their second full length, Good Views, Bad News, have bridged the pop-punk divide and tapped into a timeless formula.

Good Views, Bad News, captures pop-punk’s energetic youthfulness.  Nowhere does the band exemplify this better than their soon to be classic track, “To the Sheets.”  The song absolutely teems with carefree energy.  With an appropriately bratty delivery, vocalist Ty Vaughn sings, “I’m just a kid/with a song in my head/with your face in my heart/what could be better than this,” – it’s a verse that speaks fondly of days where pop songs and innocent crushes are the only things on a kid’s mind.  The album has an underlying playfulness that makes it warm and inviting in a way I’ve found sorely lacking over the past decade.

Speaking of which, Good Views, Bad News is chalk full of big anthems just as much as it is teeming with infectious melodies.  Returning to “To the Sheets,” the song concludes with a sing-along chorus complete with catchy guitars and gang vocals exemplary of what pop-punk can aspire to.

But Broadway Calls doesn’t just speak of trivialities; they’re also one of the few pop-punk band to successfully generate enthusiasm about the democratic process.  In “Election Night,” an infectious three minute tune about waiting with baited breath for election results, Vaughn sings “scream at the radio, please don’t let us down tonight, we’re all so tired, stop the fire… this is amazing, it’s history that we’re making.”  While the track implies obvious critiques of past governments and speaks of hopeful change, the song avoids particular allegiances, giving the listener the opportunity to internalize the message.  It’s a wonderful track about hope, exercising one’s democratic rights, and feeling empowered.  I know this might sound a little boring on paper, but that the song is so well disguised amidst an album about carefree youthfulness is testament to Broadway Calls’ musicianship.

Truthfully, when I first heard about Broadway Calls debut back in 2008 I dismissed them as a Fall Out Boy clone.  But after listening to their 2009 sophomore effort I can safely say that Broadway Calls has eclipsed current trends and jettisoned themselves into the position of trendsetters and genre leaders.  Simply put, Good Views, Bad News is the best pop-punk record I’ve heard in years.  In a decade saturated with throw away pop-punk releases, here’s to hoping that Broadway Calls rejuvenates the current climate – and one can only hope, the decade ahead.