Pennywise - Reason to Believe
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Free Music Notes for Reason to Believe
Free Music Review: Great CD!
Hit: 5 Stars
I love every song on this CD which is rare. A lot of times there are one or two songs that aren't real good, but not on this CD. Excellent.Free Music Review: Pennywise Gives You a Reason to Believe
Hit: 5 Stars
Pennywise have added new definitions to punk music with Reason to Believe. The first is the way the band has chosen to release it by only distributing it for free via [...] for a two week period. The album is one of the best new releases on MySpace Records and this decision by the band is an intelligent one. Some think this record is their best to date because the band's music is stronger, tighter and sonically appealing, while others like the older sound that's more raw/garage punk-ish.
To each his own.
Some of the best songs on Reason To Believe are "Something to Live for" and "One Reason" due to their fast and hard driving guitars. This Southern California quartet have written some more melodic songs like "We'll Never Know", which has guitarist Fletcher Dragge putting out great riff after riff and drummer byron McMackin pounds away on the drums. This is one of Pennywise's best releases.
Free Music Review: Best in Years
Hit: 5 Stars
I rarely review albums, but I really feel I must on this one. I have been a Pennywise fan for years, and think Unknown Road and Straight Ahead are two of the most fundamental punk albums of all time. Like some other fans, I have been underwhelmed by PWs more recent album. But this one is different. Yes, it is a little more like Bad Religion, with deeper bass and more heavy drums. But it is also just plain different -- darker, harder, more hardcore, and just plain great. Just listen to "One Reason" twice, and you will see what I mean. This is not just Pennywise, it is Pennywise with a serious attitude. I'm not sure what happened, but I like it a lot. If you were not happy with "The Fuse," buy this quickly. You will not be disappointed. Free Music Review: Smart move offering it for free, 'cause I dunno if I'd pay for it
Hit: 3 Stars
So with the release of Pennywise's new CD, which was a year late considering the pattern of them releasing CDs every odd year since I was one year old. So, I dunno if it was to get new exposure by people who were only quasi Pennywise fans (like me) or what, but for a short period of time this CD was available in high quality MP3 format on Myspace for absolutely free. Being the stereotypical punker kid (short on cash), free music is always a good thing, so I was happy to download and burn the music from these guys' website.
The first time I listened to it I was highly disappointed. Keep in mind that I only own one CD by this band (Their self titled 1991 album), and then I've heard some tracks here or their from various other works ("F Authority, few songs from Unknown Road and most of "The Fuse"), and it seemed to me like it was the same Pennywise sound, but a little dull and lacking in substance by comparison with what I had heard. So I wrote it off as another band slowly fizzling out of their glory days as they get older.
Then it grew on me, which is not really right... more closely, it infected me. First listen, I told myself there were about three good songs and everything else was mediocre. Second time through, I heard a totally different CD, with 14 good songs and 3 AMAZING ones. Don't know why it changed so suddenly, but these new songs, once disappointing, became totally parasitic to me and my CD player, and soon I was playing this CD every chance I got. I would go for a run (and I don't really like to run) just so I could listen to this CD as I was doing it.
Now that phase is over to and I can look at this totally objectively and say that, it is not mediocre, not bad, not awesome though. Somewhere between the good and great area this CD has chosen to nest. I probably COULD have given it four stars, but since I rarely give 5 stars a 4 star album needs to be a little bit better and I noticed that the other CDs I've given 4 stars were better than this one.
So, pluses, minuses: The strings on this CD are really good. Fletcher is on key as always, writing multiple guitar lines despite being the only six string player in the band and, a bit of a surprise, the bass is a good step up from the previous material that I've heard. For one thing, you can actually hear it (most of the time) and it tends to deviate from the safe, simple pattern of simple following the rythm guitar. There's a neat little bass into to "Something to Live For" that makes you think 'Wow, Randy is good for something other than simply replacing Thirsk.' Also, I know everybody rags on Jim's lyrics, but they're not so bad on this album, I actually really like all the risks he takes in his song writing, even if they don't all pay off and sometimes sound childish despite the fact that this dude's 42 and has been doing it for years.
The big minus on this CD is that there's nothing to really stand out like "Hey, this is the standout track, it's awesome, it's in your face, come see us live so that you can go berserk to it" I am seeing them on Warped this year, but there's no song from this album where I would say "Oh man I really hope they play this song live." The best three tracks are "As Long As We Can" "Something to Live For" and "Brag, Exaggerate and Lie" (The three songs that stuck out upon my first listen) and "One Reason" is a close second, although the into wouldn't be out of place on a metal CD.
Overall, I'd say that if you are into Pennywise this is definitely a good CD to have. I'm not an avid fan at the moment but I think that if I was I would hit you with the typical 'Get the old stuff first, but don't totally forget about this one.' However, if you don't have the money and missed the opportunity to pick it up for free, it's not a catastrophe.
Free Music Review: As good of an offering as any...
Hit: 5 Stars
If you dig previous PW albums, you'll more than likely dig this one. Although change can be good, I LIKE knowing that whenever new PW material comes out I'm not going to have to worry about them experimenting with accordions, ambient noise, and a host of other changes that would REALLY peeve the naysayers who B, M, and C about this album sounding the same as the rest.
Bottom line: Change is good, but sometimes the best things are those left untouched...