Music Review: Band's punk status falls short

Published: Wednesday, September 4, 2002

To the listener who has developed the fine aural palate for music, the distinction between punk and pop-punk is vast.

However punkish the members of the Montreal-based band Simple Plan appear, no matter how many times they denounce pop music — says drummer Chuck Comeau, "even though the songs are catchy, they're never really pop" — and no matter how many authentic punk bands they thank in the obligatory thank you list, they just can't avoid the obvious truth that they are nothing more than a simple, mediocre pop-punk outfit.

This is not to say Simple Plan's debut CD No Pads, No Helmets…Just Balls is intolerable trash. Even stellar founding punk acts like the Ramones, Blondie and the Descendents undeniably wrote pop riffs and melodies.

Simple Plan first strikes the ear with pseudo-blink-182 guitar riffs, akin to those mastered by Goldfinger, and the attitude, costume and same clichéd, stereotypical punk rock rebelliousness that has always been more present in the punk listeners than the musicians themselves.

Though on the album jacket the band members appear the stereotypical pop-punk posers, Simple Plan hasn't done a terrible job with No Pads, No Helmets…Just Balls taking into consideration the genre — poor lyricism is the band's major setback. The lyrics suffer from poor subject matter, juvenility and transparency that would embarrass a window.

Lyrics such as, "I took my dad's car/I never thought he would find out/but I crashed in a wall/Man I'm dead," don't exactly resonate depth and insight.

The album's opening track "I'd Do Anything" documents the pleadings of the hopeless romantic who is convinced that if he were to reveal his true emotions, the girl he loves will fall head over heals with him. This seems to be the theme for roughly 85 percent of blink-182's compositions — it should come as no surprise that blink's Mark Hoppus can be heard crooning, "I close my eyes and all I see is you" on this track.

Three subjects seem to perfectly sum up thematically the premises of the album — unhappiness, the-world's-against-me syndrome and broken hearts.

Songs like "I'm Just a Kid," "God Must Hate Me" and "You Don't Mean Anything" don't deviate from the simple plan that Simple Plan has adopted as its motto.

Again, quoting drummer Comeau, Simple Plan's musical agenda consists of writing "a bunch of catchy songs with really sad and emotional lyrics" for people who "are not really satisfied with what's going on in their lives." Groundbreaking.

One surprise on No Pads is "Meet You There," which has surprising latent melodramadic undertones. As the stand-alone track on the album, not only is it musically compelling, the lyrics are disturbingly realistic compared to the other songs. Rather than whine about idealistic love, singer Pierre Bouvier sings about how unrequited love isn't always foolishly optimistic.

Simple Plan has crafted a decent attempt at commercial success, but this album is unsuccessful and doesn't crawl out from under the shadow of its predecessors. The band is a little more serious than blink-182, but not nearly as creative stylistically.

Maybe, Simple Plan will have an epiphany and study the elements of punk rock before creating its follow up album.