Hit the Lights – “Anthem”

I'll never get down with this band after they laughed to my face when I ran into them and tried to compliment them on their album Invicta.

 

what the fuck, lol
that's the only album of theirs that's even slightly interesting

 

They don't seem to think so. Their loss.

 

they're just mad that the crowd didn't like it and they had to go back to playing boring mindless pop punk in order to win their crowd back over

 

This song's average, but overall this band does not make boring pop punk. Summer Bones is especially solid. Lol at the people in this thread.

 

haven't listened to much the last several years but it's mostly really bad lyrics and generic pop punk instrumentals hidden under some really catchy hooks

 

This band's photo is what actually shows up under "boring pop-punk" in the dictionary.

 

Hit the Lights' first two albums were great. I think the music sounding "generic" is just due to the fact that this style hasn't aged particularly well and has been done to death (another e.g. being Take This To Your Grave)

 

If you were looking for fun, catchy, summer pop-punk in the mid-2000s, I don't think you could've done much better than HTL

 

I just googled pictures of "boring pop punk" and Blink showed up

 

i mean yeah i really dug them in like, the 2008-2010 period. looking bad those songs are really bad but fun and catchy, but almost too cringy now.

invicta showed some maturity and it's a bummer to see bands back up from their self experimentation

 

that's not wrong ;)

 

Haha, I got The Sopranos as number 1?

And then Blink (mostly it looks like from articles saying why can't pop-punk be like this anymore).

And then this:

 

I'll go the opposite: you could have done way better from 2000-2005, and their generic albums aged so poorly there's a reason no one really remembers them but can name a billion pop-punk albums from that time period.

 

chumped put out the catchy fun pop punk masterpiece so i think i'm set with that for the rest of eternity

 

UGH. As if I couldn't hate that band any more.

 

Song sounds more like a Theif Club tune. Mid-tempo with a big chorus, loose/open drums and lots of repetition.

I prefer HTL songs to be more energetic and riffy - less of these big melodies. I'm sure the rest of the album will still rule.

 

Boring. Literally skipped ahead 3 times and heard the same thing all 3 times.

 

Jason, I usually agree with your musical opinions, but why do you still have strong opinions of this band? Is it because they made light of your website 11 years ago?

The thing is there ARE a bunch of people who still care about them. That's pretty much unavoidable when you have hundreds of thousands of listeners. Sure, their hype isn't what it used to be, but besides All Time Low and Paramore, I can't think of any neon-era bands who have stayed together and popular for this long.

As an ATL fan, do you feel the same way about So Wrong, It's Right? Sure, it sold more copies, but it's the exact same style as HTL's first two albums.

 

When did they "make light" of my website 11 years ago? There was a quote from me on their album 5 years ago.

The Maine just released a new album last month to high critical and fan praise. (Also, hundreds of thousands? This song hasn't even cracked 4k plays today.)

That it's generic pop-punk? I think I said that when it came out. People definitely remember that album though.

 

cash cash are huge DJs now!

so wrong it's right is totally different sounding too. not to mention alex is a far better singer and there's a lot more variety on the album

 

The Call Out was about the AbsolutePunk review of their EP, no?

The Maine isn't a bad example, but they also jumped ship from that style after one full length. It also took them a decade to get to that point.

And yes, of course more people remember that album--it got a push from MTV and had much more resources behind it. But the fact is people compared it to HTL, not the other way around. If they were on FBR or Hopeless instead of Triple Crown at the time, they'd be in a much different position now.

 

They also pretend Take It To The Floor doesn't exist. lol

"Totally" is a reach, but okay.

 

No idea. We debuted tracks from that album though.

Kinda making my point for me.

Arguing a counter factual is basically pointless. But I'd argue their songs weren't good enough for a label switch to have made a difference, especially when other bands did fine on TC Records, and when bands MADE their labels during that era (ATL being the example).