ALBUM REVIEW: The Hope Effect – Move EP

It was the summer before my senior year of high school, and Blink 182 had just broken into the mainstream. For some reason they were playing with Silverchair, but opening the bill was Fenix TX who were a younger band on up-and-coming label called Drive Thru Records. As luck would have it Drive Thru was there handing out their newest compilation CD, and the first band on there was a band from Florida called “A New Found Glory”, (does anyone else remember when they had an “A” in front of their name?) who took me by complete surprise. A New Found Glory was one of those bands that just hit the nail on the head for me at the time, and I remember hearing the early version of “Hit Or Miss”, and wondering why a band this accomplished wasn’t more widely recognized (maybe I was ahead of the curve for once haha). The reason I bring this up is because listening to the new The Hope Effect EP, I have the same feeling, just 13 years later.

While there is nothing on the EP that we haven’t seen before, for such a young band it’s amazing how together they sound. The first thing that comes to mind is pop-punk pin-ups Fall Out Boy, but even Fall Out Boy took an album to become the band that would go on to sell millions and trillions of records worldwide. Mix that with a dash of Hello Goodbye’s electro-pop, and you have a sugary recipe sure to whip the kids into a frenzy.

One of the amateur mistakes many young band make is trying to cram too many words into a chorus, thereby making it super hard to sing along with. But on opening track “Sara B“, every time the band launches into a “you-oh-oh” you can’t help but want to sing along and dance. The band does itself a favor and keeps the electronics low in the mix to keep from detracting from the song and the hooks.

The next song, “Forget About You” is fairly paint-by-the numbers, save for it’s hard-core breakdown about midway through (think Fall Out Boy’s Saturday but milder). While it’s a good song in it’s own right, it has the bad fortune to be stuck right between two much more immediately catchy tunes.

And speaking of immediately catchy, the final track “Move” comes out with the hook swinging! As far as pop-punk song structure goes, this one has it down to a “T”. Catchy guitar-octave leads? Check! 2nd verse led by the bass? Check! I’m not sure why there is a instrumental break at about 2 minutes in, but by this point I’m not really even caring, as they’ve already converted me.

You can get a copy of the new EP this Friday at The Channel where they play with Fera, A Brighter Life and All Hands. The show is $5 and starts at 7:30pm.