No Such Noise! – Life Goes On

Ska is dead: Long live ska. The bafflingly moribund outlook critics hold of ska seems more based on its go-to idioms of silliness and innocence, of ‘mere fun’ that at face value seem incapable of sustaining a genre than its actual track record of producing excellent and exciting music. It’s time to admit ska is here to stay, and, if groups like No Such Noise! can continue to produce EPs like Life Goes On all on their own, deservedly so.

It isn’t until the chorus of the opening track one even realizes they’re listening to a ska album – this length may sound trite, but on this five-track piece that’s about ten percent of the way through the album – and first the listener takes a dose of strong, well-produced pop punk that gives the sudden introduction of the lilting guitar licks definitive of ska a heightened gravity. Groups are rarely in the habit of exiting the style, but No Such Noise! has a vocalist whose talents would be at home in any more traditional rock style, a standout feature given the reliance of some startup bands on the brass section to prop up sound density.No Such Noise! has no such problem.

This pop punk sensibility carries much of the album, which stars a track featuring a conveniently rhyme-friendly cognomen in “Lexi Walker” that could be accused of cheap trickery but for it’s catchy tune is pushed by strong vocals. No Such Noise!’s work is produced well above its pay scale, and the crisp tunes have strong undergirding in songcraft that other bands take several years on a label to develop.

Life Goes On doesn’t progress with ideal smoothness, and the first half the album is plainly superior to the second. “West Chester,” the final track riddled with commentary on a region of New York whose east-coast-Orange-County (mid-Atlantic-Darien?) reputation may be lost on anyone who has never  visited the area, largely ranks as forgettable compared to the energetic joy that permeates “Two Years and 25 Cents” and “Lexi Walker.” While the pop ethos that informs this album’s underlying structure is a strength that allows each track to develop in ways not usually afforded ska tunes, it hampers the final pair of songs from reaching the temperature that gives the rest of Life Goes On such staying power.

Though the album goes with a whimper, the initial bang proves this group’s talent is sustainable beyond its single “Renaissance Man.” Its inclusion of the pop style and its occasionally heavier-than-usual lyrics gives it lots of potential ground to tread on forthcoming efforts, which hopefully this time will be accompanied by a label that will give No Such Noise! the attention they deserve.