First albums are somewhat similar to the first line of a review. Their role is pivotal, and they are really hard to conceptualise. But, luckily for Mayday Parade, their debut: A Lesson in Romantics was great. Let’s not beat around the bush, what made that album special was the song writing. The lyrics were on the better side of pup-punk standard, and the instrumentation was unique enough to separate the band from the pack – ALIR is an album that defined Mayday Parade and gave them some well deserved exposure. Somewhat unfortunately though, the chief song writer for the band – Jason Lancaster – left shortly after the album was released, essentially draining everything that made the band great, and leaving them as a sort of – ‘empty shell’.

It is always a shame to start a review on a bad note, so allow me to try my best to dispel any worries you might have at this point: their second major label release Anywhere But Here, is by no means bad. One thing that is worth noting however, is that Lancaster’s absence is so glaringly obvious that the band hardly feel like themselves any more. Granted, the band that remains is far from being something regrettable, but in the same respect, is equally distant from being something great.

Opener, Kids in Love, is the perfect example of what is to come. The track fades in with a steady drum beat, gaining in volume as the accompanying claps build in momentum, leading straight into the verse. In all honesty, even from the first line, it is hard to avoid the fretboard deep pool of cliché that submerges the entire album. “I look back to the one and only summer time / and my girl was the envy of every friend of mine”. Yes, the entire album is lyrically vomit inducing, but don’t let it put you off. Although you have heard the gooey sentiment generously poured into each verse a million times before, you will definitely be hearing them again, and again in your head, because its just so damn catchy. The vocal melodies are almost annoyingly adept as digging their hooks into your brain, and not letting go. The soaring pre-chorus: “And it’s still, out of my reach / and it’s still, all of the things that I want in my life”, shows no sign of becoming original content wise, but the context on the other hand, is genius. The elongated high notes stretching before a road of pounding drum beats and addictive chord progressions are either really well written, or just a hugely fortunate coincidence. The chorus itself is just as good, and although the recurring theme of kissing you’ll be hearing throughout the album is almost sickening, it works.

The second, and eponymous track, Anywhere But Here is just as good. The opening shows some flicker of originality, but by the chorus this is once again replaced with sugar coated vocal melodies that are almost instantly gratifying. If you blot out the actual words, and instead focus on everything else, you can have some real good fun singing along. “Secret love, are you there, will you answer my prayer / please take me anywhere but here…” Sure, its so sugary you could get a toothache by listening to it for too long, but I’ll be honest and say that I’ve laid awake at night on numerous occasions, desperately attempting to shake that bitter-sweet melody from my thoughts; to no avail, I might add. Lead single The Silence is a disappointing track, to say the least. It is so numbingly generic that it isn’t worth listening to, and is the first genuinely skippable track of the record, since it manages to be completely devoid of hooks, which is all this album has going for it right now. It makes me wonder what they were thinking when they released it…

Before I go on, now might be a good time to point out what we have discussed so far. In a nutshell, the actual music that you are hearing here is doing the complete opposite of breaking boundaries, and the lyrics are just bad. Take the chorus of track Still Breathing, for example: “It’s hard to be a man, but I’m doing all I can / I’m ready to give this all I have, I’m ready to be amazed”. It’s almost impossible to take seriously, and that is the main weakness with Anywhere But Here. While it can be genuinely fun to listen to, its hard to call it a good album all the same. Perhaps if the lyrical content had some glimmer of genuine emotion (rather than regurgitated pop cliché’s that are so proudly touted here) it could have rescued some credibility.

The pop riffs of Bruised and Scarred offer no solace, instead providing exactly the same recipe as the rest of the tracks discussed so far, possibly exaggerated even more so here than anywhere else on the album. Even the previously mentioned kisses make another return multiple times within the end of each chorus: “Call my name, if you’re afraid I’m just a kiss away”. Just how much more slushy nonsense can this band fit in one album? And were not even half way through yet.

If you can’t live without me, why aren’t you dead yet, is the resident ‘fourth wall’ breaking track, that truly un-originally expresses awareness that it is, in fact a song: “When you hear this chorus, do you miss the way the world was spinning for us?” It is saved, however, by being only track on the album with a genuinely good guitar solo dominating the bridge.

After another tragically hackneyed romp through how you shouldn’t waste love in the form of track Save Your Heart, we come to the sucker punch of the LP. Get Up is the embodiment of everything you can expect from this album. The almost painful naming of several American cities in the first verse, and ten second duration of the second, only work to further enforce that this is certainly a song that is all about the chorus. “Get up, get up / Sing it like you’re screaming at me / get up, get up / I love the way you make it look so easy”. It’s incredibly predictable, to the point where you’ll swear that you’ve heard it before, but there is no other moment on the album that is quite as addictive as this.

I realise that by now I sound like a broken record, so I will try to surmise the final tracks with one word each. I hope you can gather the information you need:

Centre of Attention - Catchy

I Swear, This Time I Mean It – Ballad

The End - Catchy

Yes, I think that will do it. So, should you buy this record then? That is the question that is really bothering you, isn’t it? The album is buffed so meticulously to perfection during production that you just might slip over a few times when listening to it, and while remaining strictly unoriginal throughout, it still manages to be somewhat fun to listen to.

Well, if you insist on a straight answer then: No, you should not buy this record, because you wont be sleeping a whole lot with these songs constantly buzzing around your head.

You have been warned.

Summary

An album that while technically weak, and infinitely inferior to their debut, is far greater than the sum of its parts. If you can appreciate a catchy melody, and can look past the immature lyrics and song writing, then this might not disappoint you after all. My guilty pleasure of the Year.

(Still, I have to give it a fair score)

RockStopScene Rating – 6/10