Caleb Lionheart – Climbing Up A Mountain Just For The View

Within the first five minutes of arriving at my doorstop, Caleb Lionheart’s Climbing A Mountain Just For The View made me feel bi-polar.

I looked at the artwork with no pre-conceived notions of who the band was and smiled at the title and artwork. The simple concept of climbing a mountain just for the view struck a chord with me both conceptually and visually and made me want to see what they could do.

But as I opened the booklet I became wary. The live pictures scattered across the booklet made me nervous, it looked like a straight out hardcore band and while that genre has its merits – it’s never been my favourite. I sucked it up and threw the record in anyway and as I pressed play I was treated to a nice sound clip of Martin Luther King Jr condemning the divide between the wealthy and the poor. The music began and as soon as the opening line of “Did you hear Disney bought Coney Island?” I knew I was in for a highly energetic pop-punk album and never once looked back.

With a stronger emphasis on the punk than the pop, Caleb Lionheart delivers a fast pop-punk record that sees four songs play through in just over sixteen minutes.  There are flashes of greatness as they pull in moments of Marathon (particularly in the vocal department where he sounds like a mix between Aaron Scott and Zoli Teglas) and Crime In Stereo alongside sing-along choruses of politically minded lyrics. There’s a poppy flair that makes the songs that much more catchy but never do they overpower it. Instead they stay rooted in the punk rock structure of the song, propelled forward by some strong guitar riffs, gang vocals and classic punk rock drum beats.

These flourishes are needed, because while Climbing A Mountain is an inherently fun and energetic EP, the songs have a tendency to drag on a bit. The first listen kept me excited all the way through and the second saw me singing along and throwing my fist in the air during Our Miracles. It pulls you in, but the more you listen, the less Caleb Lionheart is able to stand out and the four minute long songs feel just a bit too long for comfort.

A quick search on their MySpace shows that their older material was a bit faster – more happy hardcore oriented ala Set Your Goals. Climbing A Mountain is a slightly poppier effort – more reserved, not as heavy and with less gang vocals which makes the sound fit together better. They’ve delivered an intelligent, political record with a lot of potential who’s only real fault is the length of the songs. Slim them down a bit, perhaps throw in some more gang vocals, and then we’ll have something really worthy of praise.