Genre: pop punk
This album is incredible. I usually save that for the end of the review, but this album is too good, too perfectly formed, for me to be able to reasonably review the majority of the record without the readers going into it knowing already that I absolutely love it. Now that I've got that out of the way, I like The Wonder Years. "Suburbia" is an excellent album, and "The Greatest Generation" is very good one. In the pop punk realm, I believe they occupy a second tier along with bands like All Time Low, below the legends tier of Green Day and Fall Out Boy, but still excellent. So I was reasonably excited to hear this record, especially after the singles ("Cardinals" and "Cigarettes & Saints" had me hooked). In a week where new albums by Iron Maiden, The Dear Hunter, and FIDLAR were released, TWY definitely had to fight to be noticed, and boy, did they pull it off or what.
From the reverb drenched chords and post-rock-esque tremolo picking of "Brothers &", this is something special. The crowd chants "we're no saviors, if we can't save our brothers", a quote that shows up again a few times. The song builds up before dropping into the infectious opening clean riff of "Cardinals", which explodes into one of the most powerful and intense songs I've ever heard (and the second most powerful and intense song on the album), coupled with a chorus that worms its way into your brain for a long while, before returning to the crowd's refrain and some more tremolo picking before slamming to a stop in the form of "A Song For Patsy Cline". If we're looking for emotive melodies, we found it. The verse of this song is just serenely gorgeous, but do they sustain it? No, that would be too easy. Instead, Soupy and co. slam into one of the heaviest riffs in pop punk as hard as they can, before returning to that verse melody. But wait: there's more. The chorus is an explosion of frantic arpeggios as Soupy howls "It's hard to watch you walk away", before the main riff returns. This song is really just something else. I can't quite put it into words in a way that captures it, all I can say is that you have to listen to it. It's amazing.
Might TWY decide to follow up that one-two punch with one of the weaker songs, just to hide it and hope no one notices? Well, strictly speaking, they do, with the single "I Don't Like Who I Was Then". But one of the weaker songs on the record is one of the stronger songs of the year still, and it's the most hurried song on the album, really strongly punk. And then? Oh, and then you get punched in the face with a glass fist of emotion. This is "Cigarettes & Saints". "Cigarettes & Saints" is... something else. In one word? It's powerful. Soupy's lament for a missing friend just overflows with pain and regret, with every word threatening to crack with tears, but he holds steady. He stays strong, even on lines like "now you walk with Jesus, so the drugs that took your life aren't gonna cause you any pain". It all adds up to one of the most poignant and perfect, goose-bump inducing experiences of 2015, almost a threat to take over Steven Wilson's "3 Years Older" as the best song of the year.
Any song would have trouble following that up, and "The Bluest Things on Earth" is no exception. With a distinct lack of a hook, and not much else going on, it doesn't leave much of an imprint, which is fine because you're probably still in shock from the last song. "A Song for Ernest Hemingway" opens with some very nice harmonies, and goes into a good song. Not much else to say about it. "Thanks for the Ride" addresses a "Hannah", thanking her for the good times while pleading her not to leave, over a earworm of bendy riff. "Stained Glass Ceilings" has something in it's downtuned and downtempo intro that strikes a chord, and a passionate feature from letlive.'s Jason Butler, followed by two emotive (they all are, really) tracks of regret.
The grand finale, "Palm Reader" features a similar bending riff to "Thanks for the Ride" but with some more emotion added in for good measure, and a slower chorus where Soupy proclaims he's going to "clear (his) throat and speak out unafraid", giving off a lot of Gerard Way vibes vocally, which fits with the very emo-punk feeling of this album, there's definitely an abundance of My Chemical Romance influence. This is a fitting bang to go out on, before the calm-after-the storm-epilogue in the soft vocals, acoustic guitar, and electric piano of the title track, "No Closer to Heaven", which is also the closing line of the album, and definitely the leading theme.
The heavy religious undertone helps the feel of the album, and it feels like an album, which the single most important factor in album making. This record is a fantastic and cohesive set of fantastic songs, and I can't wait for more as soon as I can get my hands on it. Despite this, it's only number 3 on my year list, because 2015 is the nest year for music I can ever remember, and it's borne THREE bona fide masterpieces (Steven Wilson's "Hand. Cannot. Erase" and Between the Buried & Me's "Coma Ecliptic", in that order). And it's not over yet. The Wonder Years have exceeded high expectations and crafted a masterpiece of a record, and no one should ignore it.
Two songs that bring me closer to heaven: "Cigarettes & Saints" and "A Song for Patsy Cline"
Overall score: 84/100
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