The Copyrights – Learn The Hard Way

Learn The Hard Way is The Copyrights‘ fourth album (and sixth overall release) in four years and when a band is pumping out that much material in such a small time frame you’re often left wondering whether or not their able to keep releasing quality stuff or just fluff. I, for one, can’t say whether or not The Copyrights have continued releasing quality material over the past few years or whether or not Learn The Hard Way lives up to fans’ expectations simply because I have not heard any of the band’s other five releases. However, if any of those five releases sound remotely similar to Learn The Hard Way then I should definitely be looking into them.

For in just a measly twenty five minutes and fifty four seconds, The Copyrights have packed fourteen of the fastest pop-punk songs I’ve heard all year (well, Teenage Bottlerockets are probably a tad faster, but just slightly). Merging the intensity of the aforementioned Teenage Bottlerockets with the likes of The Ergs and The Ramones, Learn The Hard Way sees a band finding a well used formula that works wonders for them and sticks with it through to the end.

Each song features the signature three chord pop-punk attitude that The Ramones personified on so many albums back in the day. The songs seamlessly melt into one another and while each song more often than not sees the band repeating the same chorus or line over and over again, it never once becomes overdone thanks to it’s sheer energy and youthfulness. The words are delivered with intensity and the right amount of backing vocals that basically beg the listener to sing along with them and I’d be surprised if anyone was able to avoid doing so.

It makes it so that as each song passes, that song becomes the album’s standout track. At first it’s 57 North with it’s fist-pumping gang vocal chorus of “57 north, friday night. There’s a college to the left of me, a prison to the right” but as the chorus kicks in on Charlie Birger Time that becomes the only song you’re able to think about. Two Left Feet slows it down a tad and shows a vengeful side of the band while Switchblades captures the ear of the listener with the album’s strongest bridge and striking lyrical content. She Turns It Up is a pop-punk ode to music while Shit’s Fucked would quite possibly makeThe Descendents proud.

There may not be a ton of diversity in the songs but the album doesn’t suffer from it. In fact, it would suffer had they attempted to divert from their formula. Instead, The Copyrights have found the right sound to keep their pop-punk fans happy and coming back for more and with each listen Learn The Hard Way becomes just that much more enjoyable.