Rating: NNN
Sonic Avenues aren’t the most original band to emerge from Montreal, but pop-punk isn’t a genre big on originality. Their sophomore album displays a retro reverence for buzz-saw four-chord progressions, lo-fi production and infectious Anglo-tinged vocal hooks.
That formula brings to mind everyone from the Buzzcocks to the Undertones to the late Jay Reatard, and Sonic Avenues follow it with enough energy and craftsmanship to belong on that list (or at least to allow them to be mentioned in the same breath as those legends without accusations of blasphemy). It’s fun, fast and frank, and sometimes that’s all you’re looking for.
Thematically, the album mines the well of generational idleness and intellectual degradation from which Bad Religion have drawn for decades, but it’s a deep well. Besides, the words “obliterated” and “degenerated” just rhyme so easily over a breakneck punk riff, don’t they?
Top track: Television Youth
