Pennywise - From The Ashes
Truth be told, Pennywise has been releasing essentially the same album since Full Circle. It hurts to admit this as Pennywise was one of my favorite bands when I was in high school but
they've lost the magic long ago. It wasn't always so. If you look at their first three records there's a huge amount of change and progression from record to record on all levels. From production, to songwriting to vocals, they were pushing the boundaries of their talent on each record. It all came
together on About Time, arguably the most classic example of this kind of punk rock around.
So the big difference back then was every time a new Pennywise album came out you could get truly excited as you were assured they would be flexing their musical chops to the limit. So of course there was that slight pang of disappointment when I put From The Ashes on for the first time and heard pretty much the same song from their last album and the one before that and the one...Don't get me wrong, I still really like Pennywise but they remind more of the Ramones. Sure they make a lot of similar albums but that doesn't mean I don't own every one!
As far as consistency is concerned, this album does not disappoint. It's what you expect from Pennywise - fast, catchy sing along melodic punk with overtly political lyrics. And, like their last few albums, you can count on a few truly stand out songs that really stick in your head. On "From The Ashes" these tend to happen at the end of the record so you have to have a bit of patience to get to the good stuff.
If you're a casual Pennywise fan you're much better off buying their earlier work as that is really some of the best examples of the early 90's SoCal punk revival movement (along with Bad Religion of course). If you're a die-hard like me then you will definitely find some solid cuts on this record but you'll also find a few that just seem to be treading water. Of course that's why they made the skip button.
So the big difference back then was every time a new Pennywise album came out you could get truly excited as you were assured they would be flexing their musical chops to the limit. So of course there was that slight pang of disappointment when I put From The Ashes on for the first time and heard pretty much the same song from their last album and the one before that and the one...Don't get me wrong, I still really like Pennywise but they remind more of the Ramones. Sure they make a lot of similar albums but that doesn't mean I don't own every one!
As far as consistency is concerned, this album does not disappoint. It's what you expect from Pennywise - fast, catchy sing along melodic punk with overtly political lyrics. And, like their last few albums, you can count on a few truly stand out songs that really stick in your head. On "From The Ashes" these tend to happen at the end of the record so you have to have a bit of patience to get to the good stuff.
If you're a casual Pennywise fan you're much better off buying their earlier work as that is really some of the best examples of the early 90's SoCal punk revival movement (along with Bad Religion of course). If you're a die-hard like me then you will definitely find some solid cuts on this record but you'll also find a few that just seem to be treading water. Of course that's why they made the skip button.
