State Champs - Kings of the New Age (May 13, 2022) • Page 5

What a fun summer album. Jammed it today with the car windows down.

 

Pretty fun album, but like other have said, this feels like something they could have made in their sleep at this point.

maybe it’s because I was a SUNY Albany student when it came out so I have HEAVY nostalgic ties to it, but The Finer Things remains their best IMO with all of their following albums kind of just occupying that same space of “good enough”.

 

Act like that is dope too. Those 3 or 4 tracks are great - you could chuck the rest

 

I'd say "Finer Things" & "Around The World And Back" are nearly perfect, no-skip albums. Living Proof is like an 8.5 album too. I think this new one is the first album I'd rate lower than an 8. I don't what exactly I'd rate it yet, but it's my least favorite by them.

Anyways here's my ranking of this album's songs:

1. Half-Empty
2. Act Like That
3. Eventually
4. Just Sound
5. Some Minds Don't Change
6. Sundress
7. Fake It
8. Outta My Head
9. Where Were You
10. Here To Stay
11. Everybody But You

I think those songs at the Top 5 of my list could've made a 10/10 EP. Honestly, I think the good songs on this album are still GREAT, but you also have songs like EBY & Here To Stay which sound like autopilot pop-rock to me.

 

Act Like That was originally one of my least favorite tracks but it's grown on me. Also not a big country fan and I have never heard Mitchell Tenpenny's music outside of this, but his voice sounds great in this.

 

That feature makes the song I think

 

I maintain that Everybody But You is good until the bridge.

 

Banger

 

I'm feeling super old reading the reviews for this. Seems like the highest praise is saying it's the best modern pop punk in comparison to the Travis Barker/MGKs of the world. Is that the bar for pop punk these days? I also saw someone say this album is 2013 through and through, and the fact that that is a nostalgic era for bands to emulate is... something.

 

This type of album really scratches an itch for me. I even like Everybody But You

 

That's wild to me that Everybody But You is divisive here, that chorus is so good

 

I mean the barometer for pop punk these days isn’t super high and releases are pretty sparse. It’s definitely better than a lot of the TikTok pop punk stuff, but that’s not saying much. I prefer the new Simple Plan album to this. It is pretty crazy that we are starting to see nostalgia for the “Sad Boi” wave of pop punk. I feel super old lol

 

What does this mean?

 

Not OP, but I think that was a weird way of saying emo.

 

Basically mean the whole tumbler wave of pop punk like Man Overboard, TSSF etc.

 

Man Overboard….now that’s a band I miss and I couldn’t tell you why haha.

 

Hot take I guess but the Finer Things is so overrated. Derek's vocals improved so much on the following albums and their songs got a lot catchier. Those albums also have more diverse songwriting. Every song on FT blends together and sounds the same.

 

Debut albums being overrated is a scene staple lol

 

I think Around the World and Back is this band’s best record by a healthy margin.

 

This album is so much fun

 

The Finer Things is fairly mediocre production-wise, but there is this raw emotion & personality to that record that really shines through songs like "Elevated" "Simple Existence" "Over The Line" & "Easy Enough". I don't think they've really captured that attitude since (although "Shape Up" comes close).

 

Gotta agree with the attitude and energy of The Finer Things being a big reason why it’s still enjoyable to this day.

Overall this band never made the jump to being essential for me. Around The World is solid, Living Proof is reasonably underrated and this one is okay

 

This grew on me a ton over the past week. I thought Living Proof was largely forgettable after really loving Around the World, so I'm glad this has pulled me back in some.

 

Yeah I'm liking this a lot more know after going through several listens; such a fun listen, especially when you're out and about and in a good mood. I just want to riff and jump my imaginary skateboard over shit

 

I’m kind of going the other way on this. I spent some time with Living Proof over the past few days and I think that record is way better than this one.