Waykopp – ‘Insomnia’ and The Forthcoming ‘Too Loud? Too Old!’.
Album Front/Back Art Credit: Mat Roff – Click Here.
Hailing from Pau in the south-west of France, Waykopp are getting ready to release their follow up to their debut EP Wake Up!, with their debut full-length, the affectionately titled and tongue-in-cheek – Too Loud? Too Old!.
Wake Up! boasted five-tracks of 90’s-centric, Green Day-appreciating, Blink-182– indulging, Weezer– dusted Pop-Punk made for nothing more than beaches, skating, surfing and sunshine. An image somewhat cliché but not one any of us would pass up if it provided an escape from the day to day and who knows, you might even enjoy it?!
Too Loud? Too Old! however is the main focal point here and begins with an intro apparently set in a French Jazz club before an instrumental reminiscent of Transit takes hold as we are steadily acclimatised. ‘Kings Of Yesterday’ instantly shows a more mature band in the vein of Blink-182’s infamous eponymous release crossed with a welcome Garage Rock-esque guitar tone.
‘Gold Face’ is Pop-Punk at the core but takes this Blink-esque tone and merges it with the band’s open admiration of Weezer (and perhaps Green Day’s Warning), by default qualifying them for bills on the fringe of or even outside of the Pop-Punk scene. A risky move indeed but this far in one that is paying off.
By this point however, the lead single ‘Insomnia’ really steals the show. This is a darker band, a band more cathartically expressing themselves away from just cheerful youthful exuberance. ‘Insomnia’ is still ultimately a Pop-Punk love song but displayed in a way that is more Alkaline Trio and again “self-titled era” Blink-182 than it is New Found Glory.
I’d be lying if I didn’t say the bands Pop-Rock and dare I say Emo-Pop sensibilities and aren’t a selling point. Said characteristics merge their playful teen-angst feelings with so many facets of the now insanely wide Pop-Punk spectrum, that you find it hard to sit still and think where they themselves sit the most. ‘Go On’ has Warning-era Green Day all over it unashamedly.
‘Little Boy’ carries a brooding not remotely Pop-Punk intro supplied and filled with harmonic layered Weezer-esque vocals and a far more mature sense of purpose. In fact, this is perhaps one of the best on the release and I’m partially sorry to say that it’s because it’s so devoid of the band’s roots. ‘Little Boy’ is the ballad Alternative Rock track of the Too Loud? Too Old! and it does it’s job insanely well.
I will say little on ‘I’m Gone’ as it’s a game-changer that juxtaposes the band’ roots and where they find themselves on this album. Crunching, jagged, Alt. Rock tinged Pop-Punk with a slither of Punk-Rock attitude makes a surprised appearance in ‘Part Time Rockstars II’. The band’s emulation of both Weezer and Green Day here is flawless and as much as this has been very much repeated within this review, I will firmly state here that they band are not simply plagiarising, rather wearing influences on one sleeve and their hearts on the other.
‘Good Times’ is another tuneful and weighted Pop-Rock track with more hooks than you can shake a stick at, while ‘You Don’t Even Know My Name’ is another strong track on a latter half of a record that truly trumps the first half.
‘…Too Old?’ brings us back to the Jazz club that wasn’t really a Jazz club. Waykopp end their debut full-length at their strongest and in a way that you wouldn’t have expected from the band of two years ago. It just goes to show that Pop-Punk bands are often far more than they appear!
21/10/18 is the day!
Find Them:
- Social Media/Updates: Facebook, Instagram, Official Website.
- Music: bandcamp *Too Loud? Too Old! will be added to streaming services upon release*.
- *Pre-order Too Loud? Too Old! via the band’s bandcamp/Official Website.*
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