Categories : Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 3 / 5 Reviewer: Michelle Kennedy |
Nothing Hurts isn’t an ironic record. It isn’t post-grunge or a comment about the ridiculousness of ’90s retro a mere 16 years after Kurt Cobain’s death. Instead, Male Bonding have created a solid, energetic punk rock record that is joyfully unwilling to shy away from its pop sensibilities. Nothing Hurts is aggressive and loud but hooky-as-fuck; revelatory and exciting all the while remaining deeply nostalgic.
But, Nothing Hurts is contrived to sound like this. It’s difficult – if not nearly impossible and obviously ridiculous – to be nostalgic about a time in music history one cannot really remember. Nothing Hurts is a tribute record to a generation Male Bonding only wish they had been a part of. The songs are fun and earnest but lack an overall sense of urgency and honesty leaving us all longing for a little more. It comes as very little surprise that Male Bonding – a band gleefully obsessed with ’90s punk rock – would find their home at Sub Pop.
The stand out song ‘Nothing Used to Hurt’ is the perfect example of Male Bonding’s tribute to the greats that have come before. ‘Nothing Used to Hurt’ is a glorious hybrid of Husker Du, Nevermind-era Nirvana and a teensy bit of Elvis Costello thrown in for good measure. ‘Weird Feelings’ and ‘TUFF’ will keep the Pabst Blue Ribbon flowing and the dance party going well into the night.
If punk rock hopes to make a stamp on the early part of the 21st century the same way it did near the end of the 20th, it will not come at the hands of Male Bonding. Contemporaries like No Age, The Bronx and Fucked Up are likely to be leading the charge with Male Bonding stumbling in somewhere in the middle of the pack. And it won’t be mediocrity that keeps them flailing in the middle, Male Bonding have all the potential in the world, they just need to find their footing and work on creating a unique contemporary sound rather than simply giving nod to something long past.
