Hit the Lights Stream ‘Just to Get Through to You’ EP • Page 2

@FTank what are some of your favorite records that are fairly current? It sounds like you tend to enjoy more of a polished feel.

 

In the pop rock/pop punkish realm, I'm a big fan of everything by The Dangerous Summer and All Time Low, particularly Reach for the Sun and Future Hearts respectively. Turnover's Peripheral Vision, Transit's Listen and Forgive, State Champs' latest, and Mayday Parade's Monsters in the Closet are up there too. So yeah, for this genre I definitely prefer the polished production.

 

So every band in pop punk who is good is also lazy and generic? Besides being completely wrong, how is it even possible?

HTL makes good tunes IMO.

 

He's just trying to look at it from different perspectives.

 

**I kinda looked through your discussion in this thread along with some stuff other people have said so I'm putting all of my thoughts here.**

Kyle Black did that State Champs record that you like. The production on Summer Bones is incredibly polished (almost to a sickly sweet point) just very layered. Your ears are probably responding to the intensity of every track in the song, Black likes to compress stuff and make everything sound huge. He also EQs stuff to be very intense across the whole spectrum of frequencies. To call this record muddy or unpolished is just incorrect, your ears are just fatigued. It's similar to the new Knuckle Puck record, it had some harsh tones in the high frequency range (also known as treble).

The job of an audio engineer is essentially to set up the mics, get the tones right, handle the equipment, basically handle the mechanical aspects of recording before it goes to mixing.

I don't agree that pop punk as a genre is inherently uncreative, but I'm not sure if you said that so I'm throwing that in here as a response to whoever did. It's just a method of structuring songs, and can be good or bad in the hands of different musicians. I can think of plenty of examples of musicians utilizing pop punk song structures or songwriting methods to create music that transcends the criticism most pop punk faces (although people rarely give it the respect or time of day).

Finally, HTL songs are 100% hooks, and while those are subjective, I always find myself singing along after one listen, sometimes in the middle of my first listen. Anecdotal evidence that may be, but I find it hard to believe that one could say their songs are not catchy. HTL writes pop songs with a heavy edge, and except for Invicta (a fantastic record) they've never pretended to be anything but a heavy pop rock band. That's not an inherently bad thing, and doesn't make them a bad band for just choosing to write simple, fun pop songs. You can choose not to care, there certainly isn't a reason to, but bashing them to prop up your own musical taste feels like a lazy argument. HTL have never proclaimed themselves to be some great and important musical act.

Full disclosure I've enjoyed pretty much every HTL album.

 

I like a bunch of stuff in the genre and related genres, just don't like HTL haha. Except for Invicta, of course, which is a direction I wish they had kept exploring. I totally forgot about that Knuckle Puck record... that's probably the worst sounding thing I've heard in a while.

 

More like it's one of the only genres where bands get a pass for writing the same songs with the same tired melodies and the same chord progressions over and over again. It's such a stale sound, but you know, it's excusable because pop punk is about fun right ? It makes no sense. Weirdest thing is once a band tries to change it up, they get a lot of unfair criticism : Hit The Lights themselves, New Found Glory, Yellowcard all suffered from it. Idk, I just don't get it. There's so much more you could do in this genre, if no one was afraid to think outside the box. Fusing metallic riffs with poppy hooks ? That was the basis of happycore in the mid-to-late 00's. How is that supposed to be creative ?

 

Why are pop punk bands so interchangeable ? Here's my silly theory of the day : Pop punk musicians rely way too much on the singers' ability to write memorable melodies, like it is supposed to be enough to make a song stand out. Could it be the main reason great singers are often backed by mediocre songwriting ?

 

Are there any bands doing things in a way of which you approve in the genre? All music is derived from something. Pop punk is FAR from the only genre that has repetitive melodies/structures,etc. I guess my point is every type of music out there has the same issues you are talking about. If anything, pop punk gets crapped on constantly while other genres and bands get a free pass because they are ''indie'' or whatever dumb tag you apply to it.

This coming from someone who doesn't like a lot of new era pop punk. But damn if I don't still love the classics and find them enjoyable.

 

Summer Bones made for an excellent summer album last year and I'm stoked for these acoustic jams. I'll always have a soft spot for these guys and if you're a fan of HTL you should check out Nick's side project Thief Club(As others have already suggested).

 

There are / were a few ones that stood out over the past few years :
I Am The Avalanche - Avalanche United
Fireworks - Gospel
Into It. Over It. - Proper
Living With Lions - Holy Shit
Haf Hearted Hero
The Swellers - Ups and Downsizing
Spraynard - Mable
All Time Low - Don't Panic
Heartsounds

I don't get the same frustration with other genres, even the ones I've been exploring for nearly as long as pop punk. Indie encapsulates such a wide range of sounds so I'm not sure what you're particularly referring to.