Modern Baseball – You’re Gonna Miss it All

Modern Baseball’s first release, Sports, didn’t really capture my attention at first. It grew over repeated listens, but never really hit home until I saw them live, as is often the case. That wasn’t an issue with You’re Gonna Miss it All. Right from the start I loved their endearing indie rock/ power pop sound. They have smoothed out the rough edges of their debut, distilling their sound down to focus on their strengths. For such a young group of guys, this is an impressively mature album. 

Second track Broken Cash Machine makes it obvious why I fell in love with their sound. My favorite Canadian group of indie rockers, The Weakerthans, could have easily recorded this song. It has all of the geeky awkwardness and poetic lyricism of a John K. Samson track, with a slight pop punk edge to it. This pretty much sums up Modern Baseball’s sound on this album, a blend of The Weakerthans indie rock and modern pop punk in the vein of Mixtapes, self concious and witty. This is the perfect post relationship companion to Left & Leaving. It’s kind of crazy how it is difficult to tell which of the two vocalists is singing at any given time. They both affect a likable nasally whine that spews forth lines like I looked your direction for excessive inspection And I could not muster the courage to say a single word. The Old Gospel Choir starts with a muted recitation of the first verse, before kicking in to a catchy sing along pop punk tune. The group slow it down to a swagger for the enjoyable Notes, which sees them singing what might be the greatest ode to teenage love ever written; She was my trophy shelf of slip ups/ My untamed hormonal Loch Ness shitshow /On late night rotation for months on end/ A brick boot swimming lesson/ In the deep end of my adolescence/Scrawling notes on the backs of my hands. The song perfectly examines the sheer intensity of teenage love, a feeling which will never be matched as an adult and simultaneously recognized as awkwardly immature. Their honesty and introspection in the lyrics put them in line with fellow writers Ryan Rockwell and Dan Campbell, who also manage to write mature manifestos that sound like a tapped vein being bled into the microphone. Timmy Bowers is a muted affair, repeating the simple lines Wait a minute cause I’ve been living more like a piece of shit without you and I’ve been spending all your past killings trying to drink my way out of this groove which exudes a sense of sad hopelessness. Things pick up with the country tinged Going to Bed Now, which is a literate fuck you to someone undeserving of their attention, What could a lowly peasant being like myself/ Offer a perfect pleasant savior of humanity/The redeemer of us sickly, sinning hillbillies? First single, Your Graduation, is  a great starting point for newcomers and fans of their previous release. It maintains the punk attitude of their older tunes and is catchy enough to draw listeners in. When they sing That’s why I need the silence/ I need the empty streets on the quiet closer Pothole, it is near impossible to think back to a time that you felt most alone, detached from the world. If you’ve simply sailed through life without emotion, emptily partying and using people, this may not be the album for you. The music is interesting and catchy, but it is the lyrics that make You’re Gonna Miss it All an essential release. It is appealing in it’s relatability, in the knowledge that even when you felt (or feel, depending on where you are in your life at the moment) at your most alone, you have kindred spirits out there who understand you, who have felt what you have felt. You are not alone, even if you are broken hearted and lonely.

Far more intelligent than the average cliche riddled music coming out of the pop punk scene these days, the band manage to tackle overdone topics like young love and make it seem genuine and interesting. Modern Baseball are the Kerouac to New Found Glory’s Archie Comics. Their lyrics and sound evoke emotion. These songs are written for those who have ever suffered from a broken heart, who have sunk deeply into themselves after losing someone and have struggled to come to terms with living life once again. They are brutally honest, lovingly awkward, heartbreaking and heartwarming. These aren’t dumb fun songs to listen to on the way to the beach with your bros, instead You’re Gonna Miss it All provides the perfect soundtrack to late night conversations over coffee with that cute girl from your Comparative Literature class. Now quit being shy, just ask her already!