Senior Discount – There Were Four Who Tried

If I had to choose one blurb to describe There Were Four Who Tried, I would have to say “Straight up punk rock from the mid to late nineties with a tinge of ska thrown in for good measure.” Simple and direct, the little blurb describes the album quite well but does fall short on both the most positive aspects of the album and on the less than satisfactory ones too.

“Straight up punk rock from the mid to late nineties” is a relatively good summary about Senior Discount, after all, the album follows the angst ridden pop-punk styles that blossomed in the underground during that period. Fast and driving, the songs are written around a three chord melody and pull in easy references to bands like Another Damn Disappointment or Reset – or, most accurately, Dude Ranch / Cheshire Cat era Blink182. With a slight grainy distortion vibe added to the pop-punk tunes, the album sounds raw and fresh – the same sound the SoCal trio perfected back on Dude Ranch. But the biggest similarity comes with the vocals, as one singer has a more melodic delivery like Mark Hoppus and the other counteracts it with a nasally voice like Tom DeLonge. The ska tinged aspects comes in the form of Smile, BVW Song, Explode RI and That Bitch Not So Bad which sees them throwing in the occasional horn and upstroke portions like Against All Authority does.

Lyrically, they’re not much different than the aforementioned acts either. With a sarcastic take on love and relationships, the lyrics are angst ridden and fun. I’m Crazy sees them quickly spouting of reasons for why everyone thinks he’s crazy (I’m crazy, my own cum tastes like lime, yes I’m crazy, I’ll tell you again, I’m crazy, my left eyebrows’ my friend“) and Smile is a nice little “fuck you” to anyone who put them down. Relationships Must Die is fairly obvious with a chorus that you can’t help but shout along to. The lyrics are just fun, catchy, and memorable; although for me, the most powerful ones come on Espit Kickchitt – one of the slowest tracks on the album with one simple riff repeated throughout that tells the story of suicide and regrets.

However, there is one big downfall of this album- and that’s the length. The songs are great, catchy, energetic, and un to sing along to. Sadly though, when they drag the songs on to the four, five, six minute mark you start to get bored with them. They become repetitive an stale and you can’t wait for it to end. Often the songs start off solidly, but by then end the energy has disappeared. It’s even more apparent thanks to the songs that are only two to three minutes long. Wendy’s, Maxine, Explode RI, Nothing Left all come at you with an explosive blast and leaves you breathless showing you what they can do with a short time frame. The same energy is normally there at the start of the longer songs but quickly falters; and with the album lasting over an hour, the final few songs are unable to keep your attention.

While there are some songs in here that are definitely skip worthy every time they come on mainly due to their length, there’s plenty of songs in here that will keep me coming back to it too. It’s not great for a full listen, but throw it in on random and you’ll have a perfect addition to your summer play list.