Artist: Four Year Strong
Album: Rise or Die Trying
Label: I Surrender Records
Purchase: Smart Punk
Release Date: Sept. 18th, 2007
Overall: 8.5
Music: 8.5
Lyrics: 8.0
Production: 9
You are driving down the highway with the windows down. The warm, polluted air is rushing against your face. You stick your left hand out the window and you feel the various bugs smacking against your palm. The radio is filled with male enhancement commercials, lousy news-reporting, and mainstream music that will make you let go of the steering wheel and take a step closer towards your death. The sound of passing cars and impatient honking is growing tiresome. You want something to pop into the CD player that is going to take you away from this dreadful highway filled with too many potholes. You want something that will take you away from the hopelessness you felt this morning when you put that bland t-shirt over your head. You want something catchy enough to make you sing-along as loud as your post-puberty voice can go. Something that will uplift and strip away the hopelessness and replace it with humble fun. Are you ready to rise up and find the band that you so desperately need to discover or will you die trying and listen to whatever filth is on the radio for the rest of your life?
Four Year Strong released their debut full-length on September 18th entitled “Rise or Die Tryingâ€, which is not to be mistaken for 50 Cent’s “Get Rich or Die Tryinâ€. Surely there must be something worth dying for besides getting rich. Four Year Strong hails from Massachusetts and they packed their debut with eleven songs filled with catchy choruses, relative and hopeful lyrics, upbeat song structures, and out-of-nowhere breakdowns.
You just found out your favorite dog has been recruited into dog fighting by Michael Vick’s colleagues. Listen to “Catastrophe†and you’ll find yourself pumped up when you are calling the police, but only to be put on hold for twenty minutes. Your girlfriend of a year has dumped you via text message. Listen to “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Hell†and you’ll find yourself searching Facebook for a new lady to charm with your good looks and arsenal of magic tricks. Each song on “Rise or Die Trying†is filled with simple, yet relatable lyrics that will rain down nostalgia.
It’s impossible to listen to this record without walking away with a surge of energy and a smile across your pampered face. The songs have been packed with kicks, punches, and taser guns (incase you speak up against John Kerry). The breakdowns come out of no where and will serve as sober man’s cocaine (rehab is too expensive to waste away but he needs an energy boost). The choruses are as catchy as when “mmmBop†was blasting from thousands of minivans across America in 1996.
Four Year Strong has released a solid debut that will leave an impression on listeners and critics around the world. “Rise or Die Trying†is a fun record that will leave you in a wonderful mood, even if your boyfriend broke up with you and you have a school paper due tomorrow on something you’ve never heard of.
Track Listing:
1. The Takeover
2. Prepare To Be Digitally Manipulated
3. Abandon Ship Or Abandon All Hope
4. Heroes Get Remembered, Legends Never Die
5. Wrecked ‘Em? Damn Near Killed ‘Em
6. Catastrophe
7. Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Hell
8. Bada Bing! Wit’ A Pipe!
9. Beatdown in the Key of Happy
10. If He’s Here, Who’s Runnin’ Hell?
11. Maniac (R.O.D.)
Great review! This album does pack a punch.
great album, almost on the level of “take this to your grave” and “through being cool” but not quite, maybe “your favorite weapon”