Over It – Step Outside Yourself

While Over It have never made it to the mainstream or become overly popular, the band has always been a staple in the underground music scene. Releasing two albums on Negative Progression and two albums on Lobster Records, the Virginian turned Californian band has constantly been a talked about band in the independent scene; loved by fans and critics alike, the band was constantly labeled with the slogan “the next big thing” and while it’s taken them a few album, with Step Outside Yourself, the band is finally ready to become “the big thing.”

Over It has always been able to please the critics, myself included, with their uniquely polished pop-punk sound, but they have somehow managed to take their sound to a brand new level on their major-label debut. Step Outside Yourself takes everything that put Silverstrand on the map and improves on it, hell, they even re-recorded the single Siren On The 101 for it. Everything sounds so much more defined, the guitar work, the bass lines, the drumming, and of course, Peter Munters’ perfectly smooth vocal style that is unmatched in today’s scene is still roaring to be unleashed. Add the spectacular production work by Mike Green, and you can’t go wrong.

The thing that truly makes the album remarkable though is how much the band has been able to make each song distinctively different while keeping the album flowing. There’s the near rock track Too Much Information, Energy, the soothing ballad with Sean Mackin of Yellowcard, and even a near dancy Mister Serious. Amongst all of that you get the more pop-punk oriented tracks like Dishonor, Disorder(featuring Mike Herrera of MXPX) and the soothing Where The Sky Begins (which features some of the best lyrics on the album). Of course, it is the acoustically led closer, Like Satellites which really finds a way to blow your mind with introspective lyrics and a string arrangement. It is the perfect release point after the cumulating of emotion and energy throughout the album.

Over It fans will rejoice, because they have taken everything you’ve come to love and improved on it tenfold. It flows perfectly, it is emotional, and able to catch a chord with the listener. It is the natural progression the band needed to make, and even though it is far from revolutionary or innovative, it does everything you want to happen in one album. Beware, because now Over It won’t only be the talk of the underground.