Photo Credit: Eric Soucy
It’s been a long time since The Story So Far treated fans to new music. Side projects, parting with their original bassist, and an inconvenient pandemic have all happened in the gap since 2018’s Proper Dose.
I Want to Disappear sees the story so far go back to their roots. The majority of this album is enjoyable – if at times derivative – pop-punk. However, The Story So Far can only be accused of plagiarising from themselves, as this mostly sounds like a retread of Under Soil and Dirt, with a sprinkling of Proper Dose thrown in. There’s also more than a little of Parker Canon’s side-project No Pressure in this record.
Lead single Big Blind is riotously anthemic pop-punk. The upbeat lyrics and power chords evoke a sense of summer, and executing flips and tricks at a So-Cal skate-park. The best pop-punk should remind you of good times, and this delivers in spades.
Similarly, tracks such as Jump the Gun, Nothing to Say and You’re Still in My Way deliver pop-punk that can only be designed as quintessentially The Story So Far. The lyrics are lovelorn, but the music is upbeat, and the songs are absolute three-minute wonders.
Keep You Around is a slightly slower affair, where the album’s name makes its presence felt towards the beginning of the song. It’s just the right type of melancholy for a record like this.
That’s not to say that there aren’t some vestiges of Proper Dose left here. Although the chorus of Letterman is power-chord stomping pop-punk, the verses and lyrics have an indie introversion and sensibility to them.
Similarly, the acoustic guitars are broken out for the beginning of White Shores. The chorus explodes with louder guitars, which are almost reminiscent of Foo Fighters at their most alt-rock. The lyrics, however, are still about relationship strife, but this is a welcome deviation to proceedings, without straying too far away from the pop-punk blueprint.
Album closer I Want To Disappear is an oddly tender affair. Almost the Yin to Clairvoyant’s Yang (a deep cut for long-time The Story So Far fans!). It’s an acoustic number validating a healthy relationship, rather than lamenting a failed one. The message to the closer, and the record as a whole is clear – it’s possible to grow up without forgetting where you came from.
Where previous effort, Proper Dose, saw the band experimenting with a number of different sounds, I Want to Disappear could be viewed as a hard-reboot. Six years ago, the band were experimenting with indie-rock, and borrowing from Brit-pop. It seems that lead singer Parker Canon has – at least for now – shelved his inner Liam Gallagher, in order to return to the band’s roots. There are instances where advising that someone ‘sticks to what they know’ would be an insult. However, that’s far from the case, here, when The Story So Far do pop-punk so well.
I Want to Disappear definitely doesn’t break any new ground, but it is very good. Sometimes for band and fan, that is more than enough.
7/10
Standout Tracks: Big Blind, Nothing to Say, You’re Still in My Way
For Fans Of: The Wonder Years, Knuckle Puck, Action/Adventure
Written by: Tom Forrester
