Grown Ups lose the fun of being kids!
It's funny how sometimes perceptions can differ from reality, and within the music industry this is never more evident. When agreeing to review this album I thought that it would be a mix of jolly Pop/Punk in the vein of say Schism, or an early Blink 182, however the band have a more Emo/Post-Hardcore feel to them which even with any comedic lyrics makes the jokes come out dry and straight-faced.
The album opener is, 'Weed Science' and we have a musical sound that has that heavy-bass and melodic guitar of the likes of Primus, or even RHCP's, however Grown Ups are a million miles away from these bands, as there is a heavy-edge and with the strained shouting vocals an added balls of Punk, or Post-Hardcore. This is the main problem. 'Johnny Edwards' creeps by with some nice tempo changes, but ultimately sounded a little too much like the opening track.
'Three Day Weekend' threatens to pull out bigger riffs, but falls short, which makes 'Six More Weeks Of Winter' sound all the more inspiring and great. There is a long intro but this is a patchwork quilt of melodic-funk licks and the slap-in-the-face gritty deep guitar chugs, which then have an exploding onslaught of lyrics shouted in a slight immature excitement that actually sounds pretty good. 'Surprise Party' unfortunately isn't a surprise musically and I'm afraid I'm beginning to find the formula a little bit tedious: Melodic mid-tempo guitars, deep underlining bass and shouting vocals.
'Pears' glides by without so much as a nod of the head, and 'Open Sesame' has a couple of nice riffs in the middle before falling back into line. 'Orange cat', however does have some good points and like a naughty school boy refuses to behave itself, with some nice tempo changes and some sing-a-long vocals. 'Spider Mansion' is slightly slower and the melodic guitars have been locked back in the cupboard marked 1993, as we get a more standard Emo/Post-Hardcore track. Then the last track is the wonderfully titled, 'Are You Shitten Me?' which is better in title than in song, and once again you can't help but feel that the band have not missed one, but a whole magicians hat full of tricks!
Grown Ups play their instruments well. They can write and record their music quite adequately. The biggest problem is that it just doesn't stand out as being anything more than music churned out by bands all over the globe that is mediocre rock at its best. It's okay, but nothing special.