Underrated achievers!
It may sound a little bit sappy, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Indie record label Engineer Records having had the pleasure of reviewing compilation DVD’s and CD’s from them as well as individual band’s albums, and with Junior Achiever they have a great band that pulls together everything that I like. This has a Pop/Punk feel of bouncy catchy Pop/Rock songs, with big riffs and intellectually amusing lyrics giving the proverbial cherry on top.
Naturally for an album that’s called, ‘All The Little Letdowns’ the only one that I can think of is that I have only just discovered them. First song, ‘Another Stupid Love Song’ sounds like a cross between Everclear at their catchiest, Fountains Of Wayne and Naked Apes. They have the ability of churning out a song that is catchy without sounding like a band that you should be embarrassed about liking. ‘Scoot’ has a nice little acoustic jig feel in the first verse before the chorus and the guitar riff rips in with all of it’s head-banging glory. ‘Better Than This’ is a pure listening pleasure in the vein of Bowling For Soup with a dash of Silver Sun, with chugging guitars and vocal melodies…Great, great, great!
We have the pain of not feeling good enough in, ‘Suburbs’ with the lyrics of, “I’m a cheater, I’m a loser // I feel like a fallen user // In a world so full of pain // I can sink myself into // I’m ashamed to hear my name next to yours // I’m ashamed to hear my name…”. Gene Champagne has a great voice (and name I might add!)that lends itself perfectly for this melodic Pop/Punk so naturally, he must’ve been humming hooks in the womb… 'Dumb It Down’ has some nice harmonies and has a hint of Weezer about it minus the fuzzbox guitars. Then with riffs bigger that King Kong’s balls, and hard drum beats, ‘Underrated’ is Punk with melodies.
Like early Blink 182 but with better quality, ‘Lick Me, Suck Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me’ is a sex-fuelled slice of Punk. Stupid, immature, catchy and pure brilliance, sometimes you can leave saving the world to others…then moving on to, ‘Say What You Want To Say’ which jumps out at you as a anthem that is so catchy that you will swear that you’ve heard it before. There are elements of Simple Plan, but only splashes as Junior Achiever have a more mature sound and are less throwaway. ‘California’ is another great song, and it would have to be. Sounding like the band Plunket mixed with Army Of Freshmen but without the keyboards, it’s a poppy song with a chorus that reminds me of the theme tune to the TV programme, ‘OC’.
‘She’s So Mean’ has cheerleader shouts in the background and sun-kissed vocals like if you took Ben Folds and let him party with Jocks and Cheerleaders whilst Brian Wilson looked on approvingly. We then have electric beats to start with on, ‘Daytona’ which sounds a little like Wheatus on one of their latest albums (a band that are underrated in my book). It’s then interesting to see that it takes a dozen songs before a slow song, which is thoughtfully constructed, before last song, ‘Gutless Wonder’ which could’ve been penned and sung by The Vandals. Great tongue in cheek Punk humour.
Obviously a special mention has to go out in regards to Junior Achiever being featured on, ‘Degrassi: The Next Generation’, which if you remember was the great Canadian show from the 1980’s a bit like Grange Hill but more controversial. However, with their debut album, ‘All The Little Letdowns’ they have an album that will have you excited as a kid on Christmas Eve with it’s sound that is a cross between Fountains Of Wayne, Bowling For Soup and Everclear, and so whilst other Pop/Punk albums are becoming watered down and bland, Junior Achiever have one that stands up proud like the contents of a schoolboys’ trousers! Great stuff!