‘Angst’, the simply titled début album by American pop punk four-piece, Handguns, is relatively upbeat and head-bop friendly on first impressions. Opening track ‘Porch Light’ has a catchy chorus, nice intro and relatively sophisticated lyrics. It’s a good start to a track listing that delivers something fairly close to the promise hinted at on the band’s 2011 EP, ‘Don’t Bite Your Tongue’. Not quite though. That fine line between righteous dissent and obtuse rudeness that defines quality pop punk isn’t always so well managed. In fact, the more I listen, the less I love it, as the band now seems to be writing for a teenage target audience. I’ve been ditched.
Second track ‘Drag You Out’, again, starts well, with a standard mellow bass riff from Nate before Taylor heckles inanely “Where’d you get the make-up from to conceal all those scars.” That’s a turn-off personally but I give them the benefit of the doubt as the jarring line does fit in context with the rest of the song. Unfortunately though, this isn’t an isolated incident. ‘Early Retirement’ – again, a perky track and nice melody, but lyrically childish, with a little voice-over part that includes the line “Okay, well first of all…you can’t fire me because I quit” after depicting some kids (they said it) getting sacked for skiving at work. Granted narrative doesn’t have to follow the perspective of the writer but a band’s persona is a big part of the experience for me and these scenarios are at odds with the band’s actual make-up of stubbly grown men. The Handguns Facebook page even states “We will get up earlier than you and work longer and harder.” Four guys working hard to provide us with great music…that’s worth supporting and I wish I liked ‘Angst’ more than I do but I can’t relate to it.
The album does offer reasonable tunage for background listening but it doesn’t hold enough substance to maintain any real sticking power in my playlists. At times I forget I’m listening as the progressions merge into a long yawn of similar tracks, particularly at tracks eight onwards excepting the cosy but slightly cheesy track eleven, ‘Fade Away’ which breaks the monotony. This doesn’t make the songs themselves bad – when listened to in isolation they’re well worth coming back to. But, while there are many nice songs on ‘Angst,’ I can’t identify a definite stand-out track to make the album memorable and give me an incentive to keep playing it. The guys could take note, in this area, from former tour buddies Man Overboard, whose addictive sing-along-style Love your Friends Die Laughing has kept their self-titled album accessible and recommendable even a year after its release. The refrain “Don’t tell me to write a song about you, don’t tell me what do to” from Handguns’, ‘Song About You’ does stick in the head but not in a good way; and that’s all I take away with me from the release even after several weeks playtime.
Perhaps I’m being harsh. Handguns are a very popular band. Their music shows potential even if I’m a little disappointed in their choice of direction here. What direction their potential will take following the recent departure of guitarist Jake Langley, though remains to be seen.
3/5
‘Angst’ by Handguns is out now on Pure Noise Records.
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Words by Lisa Gilbride.
