Elder Abuse – ‘Burnt’.
Elder Abuse – Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
With perhaps some of my favourite and chaotic album artwork of the year, we have Burnt by Winnipeg four-piece Elder Abuse. My own and MF’s discovery of the record is two-fold as before I received an official email request, I was quite literally drunk and ordering vinyl, because apparently I do that…
Now as unprofessional as that is, upon only reading a description of the band and this debut full-length and second release and not hearing one note, I proceeded to send-off the pre-order. I didn’t actually hear the album until the day I dropped the needle on the bright blue wax so without further reminiscing…
Burnt kickstarts with a tall glass of well-produced refreshing ‘Lemonade’ in it’s 90’s Skate Punk glory. It does so soaring with Pop-Punk melodies and approachability through an anthem of playful determination. The rhythms are driven down tempo with a low ridden bass and contrasting but slightly too subdued lead line in the intro of ‘Live Free’. This second track carries more weight maintaining the band’s upbeat nature but also more of a raw Punk sound.
For ‘Good Enough’ the band settle at a mid-point between the stylistics of the previous two tracks where this time thankfully, the presence of the playful melodic leads that make Canadian Skate Punk what it is are this time not only present but flying high.
The intro of ‘Weatherman’ is classic Pop-Punk straight an true. You can either look at it as a band keeping true to their youthful exuberance or alternatively a band that have decided that life is exuberant rather than just their youth, which is how my twenty-six year-old brain is processing it.
‘Better Off Dad’ after another similar intro, carries some of the band’s hardest and classic Skate Punk-isms. A juxtapostion of pessimistic realism, determination, faith, disillusion, honesty and again exuberance are often synonymous with Punk music and that is exactly the case with this track and the band as an entirety.
‘EAOG’ simultaneously acts as the “stupid Punk track” of the release and unexpectedly the heaviest as well as standing complete with a vintage excerpt from Martin Prince of the very yellow, Springfield, Illinois.
‘Captain’ is sonically sound but is just that. Most albums have their “good” or “filler” track and in this case ‘Captain’ is this very track. Again, there is nothing necessarily wrong with it, but it fails to grab the listeners attention in the same way as the majority of Burnt.
‘Reorientation’ on the other hand sounds akin to a Skate Punk variant of The Wonder Years and the lighter side of After The Fall. Comparisons aside, this seventh track is the faster and musically more aggressive number that was indeed the missing link and it suits Elder Abuse.
The momentum subsides for ‘The Winner’s Circle’ where Elder Abuse battle inner demons in the best attempt at a crowd inducing sing-along, which brings us to a particularly noticeable aspect of Elder Abuse. That being that the lyrical content is basic, honest and worn on the sleeves of each of the four-piece.
Burnt is an emotive album from a band who let their emotions flow in their most basic and unrefined form. There aren’t any added emotions for the sake of it and neither are there any attempts to over do it, for the closer much like the whole record – is very genuine.
Burnt is available now via State Of Mind Recordings and Little Rocket Records.
Find the band and labels below:
- Social Media/Updates: Facebook, Twitter.
- Music: bandcamp, Spotify, iTunes/Apple Music, bandcamp (State Of Mind Recordings), bandcamp (Little Rocket Records).
- State Of Mind Recordings: Facebook, Twitter, bandcamp, Official Website.
- Little Rocket Records: Facebook, Twitter, bandcamp.
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