Review by Shannon Shumaker
At first, it’s difficult to believe that Four Year Strong has been a band for nearly twenty years, but when you hear the spectacular songwriting on their latest album, Brain Pain, it’s obvious. Although the band certainly made their mark on the pop-punk and post-hardcore scenes with their breakthrough albums, Rise or Die Trying and Enemy Of The World, they aren’t afraid to take a step away from the sounds that put them on the map, and they certainly do just that with Brain Pain.
The first thing that long-time fans will notice about this album is how undeniably heavy certain moments are. The guitar work in particular is a standout, but even songs like the title track, “Brain Pain” sound unlike anything the band has released before. Take that and pair it with very self-aware lyricism and Four Year Strong’s signature vocal harmonies, and you’ve easily got one of their best records to date.
It’s almost hard to summarize Brain Pain without taking you through a full-on track-by-track of the album, and that’s definitely not a bad thing – it simply means that there’s a little something special in each song on this album. The opening track, “It’s Cool,” for instance, starts off with a very theatrical and orchestral tone, but quickly transitions into one of the band’s heaviest songs yet. Then comes the catchy as hell, “Get Out Of My Head,” carried by chugging, almost nu-metal sounding guitar work and a classic Four Year Strong chorus that, despite the song’s title, is sure to get stuck in your head. And then there’s the insane breakdown in “Crazy Pills” and the fantastic guitar tone in the following track, “Talking Myself In Circles.”
There’s easily something that makes each and every track stand out, and this is both the album’s biggest strength and at times, its biggest weakness. While it makes for banger after banger, it can also tend to feel a bit like whiplash at times. The drastic changes in upbeat, catchy songs like “Learn To Love The Lie” and the more metal/hardcore influenced “Brain Pain” is enough to make your head spin. But thankfully, in true Four Year Strong fashion, once the chorus hits, it all seems to just click.
The album never really loses steam, either. While the intro to “Seventeen” nearly sounds like it could be a Knocked Loose song, it quickly transitions into a surprisingly bright and upbeat track. There’s also a moment to take a breather in the stunning acoustic track, “Be Good When I’m Gone” before the album inevitably comes to a powerful close a few songs later with “Young At Heart,” which unsurprisingly sounds nothing like the songs that come before it.
After a decade together, many bands can struggle to find the balance between trying new sounds and staying true to what made fans fall in love with them in the first place, but nineteen years later, Four Year Strong have somehow managed to perfect the art of experimentation. Brain Pain is certainly a classic Four Year Strong album in the vocal harmonies and catchy choruses, but it also gives the band some room to explore new sounds while rarely coming across as forced. Brain Pain is proof that the band definitely has staying power in 2020.
LISTEN TO: “Get Out Of My Head” or “Learn To Love The Lie”
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