The Loved Ones - Build & Burn

Rating

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RIYL

Rancid
The Bouncing Souls
Pennywise
Bullets & Octane

Release Date

02/05/2008

Label

Fat Wreck Chords

Tracklist

1. Pretty Good Year
2. The Inquirer
3. The Bridge
4. Sarah’s Game
5. Brittle Heart
6. Selfish Masquerade
7. 3rd Shift
8. Louisiana
9. Dear Laura
10. I Swear

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The truly exciting punk sound that many had thought died long ago is slowly creeping back into appeal, one album at a time. Throughout 2007 we heard albums from bands such as Cloak/Dagger and Fucked Up carrying the torch through these truly dark ages for “punk” music. While the aforementioned bands carried the “angry punk” torch quite well, The Loved Ones play to our nostalgia for the more melodic, heart-on-the-sleeve punk made famous by classics such as The Bouncing Souls and Rancid. The evolution of a tradition many thought lost has been recaptured and reinvigorated by this phenomenal record, unsurprisingly coming to you from one of the last punk vestiges, Fat Wreck Chords.

It should come as no surprise that The Loved Ones have put out their best record in Build & Burn. The band's additions of Dave Walsh on guitar and Chris Gonzalez on bass, both of the recently departed and highly underrated punk band The Explosion, create an all-star lineup as Paint It Black / The Curse guitarist Dave Hause and drummer Mike Sneeringer of Trial by Fire round out the list. Certainly, if there was to be a lineup to deliver the confused, bored masses back in droves to the heartfelt over pop, community over image, and energy over production, The Loved Ones should be it, and with Build & Burn, they have delivered on almost all of the expectations that accompany a cast such as this one.

The production for this album is perfectly balanced, capturing the great sound possibilities of today with the energy that a punk band should display. The members of The Loved Ones may have been around this block a few times but they don’t show any loss of enthusiasm. Every vocal melody and lyric is sung with true passion, making you want to be a part of the crowd in some stuffy basement, singing along to every word with the people pushing up against you and most likely falling over you. The instrumentation (drums, guitars, and bass) is essentially perfect for this type of album. The guitars are melodic, yet engaging, while the drums always keep that ever-punk-important quick pace. The Loved Ones may be one of the few final answers to our prayers for a punk revival but when a punk album that would be good in any era is released, the community should relish in it. Build & Burn is that record.

--Michael Smer

Author

Michael Smer
Last updated: 09/29/2009 08:59PM

Comments

monkeybars
02/11/2008
09:51AM
Age: 25
Location
Markham, ON
I absolutely adore this album. Dave wasn't the signer for The Curse or Paint it Black, but he was the songwriter for The Curse.

P.S. This is what the alphabet would look like if you removed Q and R.

jeff the baptist
02/11/2008
10:02AM
yeah ive only heard this album once but i already think its really great. their last one was good, but not nearly this good.

also, check out dead to me and nothington for two more bands doing this type of thing.
Michael Smer
02/11/2008
10:28AM
Age: 27
Ugh, yeah sorry, he was the guitarist for Paint it Black and the Curse, my bad, just zoned out.
xRinox
02/16/2008
09:26AM
Age: 31
Location
San Borja, Lima, Perú
Wow.... this sounds like the crappiest, cheapest shape of punk ever made. I do like it
Firebrand
02/20/2008
01:49PM
So good. Unfortunately, in person (or at least on this tour) they get outshined by Gaslight Anthem.