ALBUM REVIEW: No Vacation – The Bottom Line

June 21, 2019 Mikey Lord

There’s no denying that pop-punk has been a foundation for getting some of us into rock and metal. From BLINK-182, FALLOUT BOY, PARAMORE, we’ve seen them all. For a while the genre itself was slammed for feeling recycled in sound with many trying to be on the same level as the titans of the scene. Fast-forward to 2019 and we’re seeing a whole new revitalisation of the genre and THE BOTTOM LINE are seizing their opportunity after years of grafting through thick and thin with their new album No Vacation.

No Vacation immediately punches you in the jaw with Reasons, a jump-up-and-down classic pop-punk anthem of a first track that is all that a brilliant pop-punk track needs to be. Second track She Makes Me sounds like it fell off of a STATE CHAMPS record, and follower Over And Over maintains the vibe brilliantly. This band would pair up on a tour with WSTR and AS IT IS like a good red wine and a steak dinner. The brash energy of No Vacation is already spellbinding by track three. This isn’t new musical ground by any means, but THE BOTTOM LINE are taking a masterful approach to a genre that is becoming more and more of a hive-sound and a movement where great, sincere songs are the absolute priority.

With Bad News, Cal Aimes showcases a gentle grit to his vocals that is almost unheard of in bands of this ilk. His voice gives this band an edge, absent which THE BOTTOM LINE might only be a few great choruses ahead of the queue of others making a similar noise. Initially, acoustic guitar driven Doomed is the first sonic left-turn on No Vacation, but it isn’t long before the rest of the band show up for what is potentially the strongest chorus of the album. Aimes has a wicked approach to melody. He balances his punkier edge with a bubblegum pop mentality and lands somewhere in the middle, pulling enticing hooks out of mid-air.

Gone is the song ALL TIME LOW fans have been begging for. It’s got all the taste of 2019 pop rock with a more traditional approach. If ALL TIME LOW aren’t going to do it, this band may as well own it. This is a great mix of 00’s golden age pop-punk production and songwriting and a more modern, NECK DEEP style approach. Like The Movies, Everything and California don’t particularly explore anything that isn’t explored in the six tracks that precede them, but they are great songs in their own right and certainly aren’t dry moments. Album closer In Your Memory is perhaps the most grown-up moment on No Vacation. Like all the other songs here, it doesn’t feel over cooked. It’s simple, it’s anthemic and it demands energy from its listener. It’s also the strongest lyrically – ‘I will do this wrong before I do it right, I’ve been wasting so much life’ is a total gut punch of motivation.

There isn’t much room for diversity within this sound, but somehow THE BOTTOM LINE white-knuckle us by the lapels for all ten tracks of No Vacation. This record is consistently great, it doesn’t slow down and it is full of some of the best choruses to come out of this scene in a long while. This is a band that knows what they are and they embrace it fully. THE BOTTOM LINE aren’t a run of the mill pop-punk band – they’re better than that – but they are a band fearlessly owning the genre with a classic approach. Standing out from the hordes of pop-punk bands out there is a mammoth task, but with songs overflowing with life as much as the ones appearing on No Vacation, THE BOTTOM LINE are very hard to ignore.

Rating: 8/10

No Vacation is out now via Marshall Records.

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