ALBUM REVIEW: Harder Than It Looks – Simple Plan
Life is a series of events designed to teach us about our character. Sometimes it feels as though we’re stuck in a never-ending cycle of the same old lessons. We compare ourselves to other people when we’re struggling. It’s human nature. How are they able to sail through when we can just about tread water? With their sixth studio album, SIMPLE PLAN proclaim it’s Harder Than It Looks. In the wake of 2016’s Taking One For The Team, the Montreal quartet found themselves as free agents. Shaking off the shackles of record labels, SIMPLE PLAN returns to their roots for ten tracks of arguably their best material since their 2008 self-titled effort.
Opening with the slower Wake Me Up (When This Nightmare’s Over) may appear to be a ballsy move, but this is a band embracing what they do best. With pop-punk clichés of distorted vocals in the interlude before the last hurrah of the slightly-too-slow anthemic chorus, this is the SIMPLE PLAN of old, the SIMPLE PLAN which languishes within thoughts of the inability to cope with life’s tribulations and wanting to disappear. Talking about the sensation of “trying to run but I’m going nowhere” proves ageless as these 40-somethings reflect the issues of their younger selves.
Is it ever possible to reframe these thoughts without sounding bitter? Not entirely as Ruin My Life demonstrates. This is a pop-punk kid’s wet dream of a collaboration between the band and Deryck Whibley of SUM 41 but not as we’d expect it. Pierre Bouvier’s shouting vocals blast through a sadder than usual guitar melody. The gift of aging has allowed SIMPLE PLAN to approach their craft much differently in places, staggering the fuller band entrance as opposed to assaulting the ear drums all at once. The repetition of the first verse before the second chorus with a subtly wider soundscape is remarkedly refreshing. Even the placement of Whibley’s guest vocal comes as a surprise. Whibley’s rasps of “you’re the one who’s really breaking” flies from Bouvier’s rudimentary bitterness towards an ex-partner. The result is an infectious song which we can’t help but scream along to while picturing our own source of spite.
While the Canadians have returned to sonic terra firma, it sadly doesn’t mean omitting a few stereotypical elements from pop-punk back in the day. “My broken pieces don’t fit in” from single The Antidote reads as a line from a teenager’s diary. Million Pictures Of You is a saccharine ode to the moment you fall in love but is very Pop-Punk 101 with its predictable song structure. SIMPLE PLAN has always marketed themselves as a band for people to relate to, but these songs seem to brush aside the fact their audience has grown, as have they.
With that in mind, there are pockets of evolution within the band. Anxiety is much darker than expected and could be branded as a departure. Bouvier’s muted opening vocals race like an anxious mind bordering on dissociation. Set to Sébastien Lefebvre’s “reggae-noir” guitar melody, Anxiety’s bounce is one of comfort. The need many with the disorder for rhythm have is more than sated, allowing the trauma bonding of “reality is killing me” to sink in. Slow Motion then brings a strain of 80s new-wave into the fold. Bubbling synths mesh with Bouvier’s walking bass lines to create a song to simply vibe to as a secondary activity. Bouvier’s lower register vocals are a joy to listen to as he recounts the age-old tale of meeting a girl who catches his attention. Does Slow Motion come with a side of cheese? Absolutely, but it isn’t sickly as earlier Million Pictures Of You or later Iconic.
If it’s nostalgia we want it’s SIMPLE PLAN we go to. In an interesting point of reference, the band address this. Best Day Of My Life is almost the polar opposite to The Worst Day Ever from 2002’s No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls. Packed with energetic riffs and high-octane drums, Best Day Of My Life is driven by positivity, although this isn’t as clean as it may appear. While it calls for appreciating what you have in times of turmoil, there are elements of toxic positivity brewing within that same sentiment. While an argument could be made that it’s just not that deep, Best Day Of My Life could fall victim to the age of self-awareness.
How does Harder Than It Looks measure up? It’s a case of the more things change the more they stay the same at times. For a band that has been active since 1999, SIMPLE PLAN are bound to stumble at the hurdles of predictability. Yet when their song writing and production become imbued with age and life experience, the band put out some of their best material since 2008. Though, a slight aside, Untitled (How Could This Happen To Me?) remains closer superior. Do people in their 40s need to be writing about their parents’ divorce as they do on Two? No. It’s elements like this and getting stuck in the past which hold them back. It may tie into the cycle of repeated scenarios but SIMPLE PLAN are more than capable of breaking their own 23-year cycle of learned behaviour.
Rating: 7/10
Harder Than It Looks is out now via self-release.
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