Review by Shannon Shumaker
Red Lights is exactly what the pop-punk scene needs right now. With catchy hooks and memorable choruses coupled with a larger than life, stadium ready sound, Milestones’ new full-length is filled with hit after hit. It’s something you could imagine discovering at Warped Tour back in 2004, but has a lasting factor that’ll surely launch the band’s career even further in 2018.
Each song on Red Lights comes with ease. Nothing feels forced, which makes for an extremely fun, light hearted, yet still very emotional release. This album is strong right out of the gate with the opening track, “BitterSweetHeart,” which feels like an early 2000’s pop-punk anthem. It is only one-upped by track after explosive track, starting with the second song, “Once Upon A Time,” which feels like a callback to some of All Time Low’s early work.
Although Red Lights doesn’t hit hard like some artists who’ve managed to blend the pop-punk genre with easycore and a bit of post-hardcore, it still hits. Literally every single song on this record is catchy as hell and sing-along worthy. It’s the perfect album to warm you up during cold winter months and make you excited for summer.
While high energy anthems like “Paranoid” are surely going to become fan-favorites, the stand-out songs on Red Lights are actually the ones that break the mold. Ballads like “Against The World” and “Counting Cars” might not feel explosive or make you want to get off your feet and dance, but what they lack in energy, they make up for with emotion. “Against The World,” for instance, features some of the most powerful vocal work on the album, while lyrically, “Counting Cars” strips the band to the bone and finds vocalist Matthew John Clarke bearing his soul.
With slower ballads between high energy anthems, Red Lights never once feels stagnant or flat. Instead, the album ebbs and flows nicely, with a distinct beginning, middle and end. Throughout the entirety of Red Lights, there are no songs that feel like they don’t fit. Instead, it’s just hit after hit, and the best part is, it feels incredibly timeless. Red Lights has the lasting quality that keeps fans returning to the artists and albums that shaped their high school years long after they’ve graduated and grown up, making this album an instant classic.
LISTEN TO: “BitterSweetHeart” or “Against The World”
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