ALBUM REVIEW: Kings Of The New Age – State Champs
When STATE CHAMPS snuck out of the suburban skateparks of New York nearly a decade ago with The Finer Things, they were heralded as the heirs of ALL TIME LOW’s frat-party pop-punk crown. Whilst 2018’s Living Proof felt like taking a foot off the gas in favour for a scenic drive through a sound that didn’t quite fit, fourth album Kings Of The New Age switches gears but stays in the same lane for what sounds like a greatest hits set.
Undoing their experiments in pushing their pop-punk boundaries to uncharted territories with John Feldmann, the quartet have teamed up with Drew Fulk to double-back to their roots. Opener Here To Stay is a mission statement of sorts, pulling out riffs that wouldn’t feel out of place in pop-punk’s mid-00s glory days, with vocalist Derek DiScanio defiantly declaring “We got through the nightmare on our own / It’s safe to say we’re here to stay.”
Kings Of The New Age is a set that sticks to its guns, as STATE CHAMPS show off their chops at doing what they do best: summer sing-alongs that send festival crowds into a frenzy. Whether it’s Outta My Head’s homage to the American Pie soundtrack days or Just Sound’s throwback to The Finer Things’ destroy-the-warped-tour-dancefloor vibes, you’re strapped in for a rocket-ship ride through supernova sing-alongs and blackhole-sized bops. And let’s not leave out drummer Evan Ambrosio and guitarist Tyler Szalkowski who perform their roles so perfectly it practically fuels the STATE CHAMPS ship.
Although STATE CHAMPS stay between the same lines, using the same colours to shape Kings Of The New Age into a greatest hits set of songs they’ve never released, there’s times they stop it from getting too stale by stretching their sound – only this time, it’s far more successful than Living Proof’s missteps. Album highlight Half Empty shifts gears into the new-wave synth-pop ALL TIME LOW tie-dyed their pop-punk t-shirts in on Last Young Renegade, letting expansive harmonies roll through your eardrums like riding in a car with the windows down as AGAINST THE CURRENT’s Chrissy Costanza drips her honey-soaked vocals all over the song. Elsewhere, Act Like That enlists country popstar Mitchell Tenpenny for a power-pop anthem that’s ready-made for pop-rock radio and spring break sing-alongs. These little experiments don’t alienate any day one listeners, instead endearing them to a meeting of minds that makes sense as they grow older.
On a surface level, Kings Of The New Age is a simple set of bangers. Dig a little deeper into its wax lyrical wounds and you’ll come to the conclusion it’s all a bit more complicated. At times, it feels like DiScanio’s left their frat-party fun behind in favour of therapy session thoughts – “I’m starting to see / No I haven’t come to terms with myself yet / I’m grinding my teeth / While I’m dealing with the fear that I protect” – and existential self-reflection – “Is there something wrong with me? / Is there a key to the door? / And is there a puzzle piece I must’ve ignored?” – but it’s too good to be true.
Whilst songs like Sundress and Everybody But You are shallow on the surface, singing of summer flings and failed flirtations, others threaten to be something more before slipping into bad habits. Take the worst offender, Where Were You, where DiScanio shares his seriousness with the listener for some headphone confessional – “Where were you when the world stopped turning?” – before diluting the track with some down on their luck in love tropes that are too cliché to claim as their own – “Was I a fool for ever thinking I could get you to stay?”
On Kings Of The New Age, STATE CHAMPS aren’t reinventing the wheel whatsoever, choosing to send out a solid set of pop-punk bangers built for a summer of sing-alongs. Whilst some of it slips into bad habits, does it really matter when every song sounds so good it has you singing “I can’t get you out of my head, out of my head”.
Rating: 8/10
Kings Of The New Age is set for release on May 13th via Pure Noise Records.
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