Pennywise Return To The Studio

All Along is a gnarly song - has the pennywise cord progression in the late intro, but it's fun.  The album is fast but also 'bouncy' like that song,  It's a damn good album  

 http://dyingscene.com/news/pennywise-fletcher-tells-all-must-read-and-let-us-hear-your-voice-free/

I finally got to hear this thing.  And I agree that it is a kickass album, except for "Seeing Red" which I just don't get.  "Stand Strong" is my favorite song at the moment.  I actually like the new vocalist (I never listened to Ignite...but maybe I will now, dunno).  Some have compared this album to Reason to Believe but to me, it doesn't seem nearly as heavy or dark.

Alice wrote: I think that 'day' is a just a Pennywise word... have a listen to their other albums, it appears quite a bit (maybe not 59 times though!)

Overall this is a great new Pennywise album, and I rate it 4 stars. I was really interested in hearing what their first album with Zoli would sound like, and was blown away by the first single. Right now I like All or Nothing better than Reason to Believe. While I was upset that Jim left and that he won’t be making music with the other guys in the band anymore, I’m happy that Pennywise chose to continue on. I didn’t know who Ignite were before Zoli joined, nor did I know who Zoli was, although I think that PW definitely chose a great new vocalist. I’ve become a fan of Ignite since Zoli joined PW, although I like PW better (including their new album). As Fletcher has said, Zoli fits in with PW since he shared many of their political views, and I also admire his environmental activism. I anxiously awaited All or Nothing – while it took them a long time to make it, its definitely better that they take their time rather than rush things with a new singer. (Apparenly Zoli kept on delaying the recording of the album since he was replacing Jim). I was definitely interested in hearing what this album would sound like after 2 years of hard work, and while this isn’t my favorite PW album I enjoyed most of the songs. My favorite song off the album (and now PW song overall) is “Let Us Hear Your Voice” – this is probably the most epic punk song I’ve ever heard. My least favorite is “Songs of Sorrow”. I really enjoy the positive lyrics of the majority of the new songs, despite many of them sounding dark musically. It’s also great that PW hasn’t changed their sound musically, and that Zoli is singing in a lower register than he does with Ignite. (It’s great that Zoli has a better singing range than Jim, although I like the way that Zoli sings in PW better than Ignite since he’s singing at a lower range in PW). Out of all the new songs, “Revolution” was the only one that sounded like Ignite. You can definitely tell the songwriting influence of Randy and Fletcher in previous PW releases with Jim, given how similar PW sounds with this album. In comparing All or Nothing to the Black Pacific’s first album, I had a hard time deciding which one is better (since they’re both amazing albums), although I’d say I like All or Nothing slightly better.

I don’t know why some people don’t like The Fuse, and why Fletcher was implying that it wasn’t one of his favorite PW albums. The Fuse is one of my favorite punk albums of all time – just listen to songs like Fox TV, Stand Up, 18 Soldiers, Competition Song – those are some of my favorite songs of all time. In my opinion, all Pennywise albums have the same general sound, though with their self-titled, Unknown Road, and All or Nothing having the most positive lyrics. I don't agree with Fletcher that they were moving in a less aggressive direction in the last few years of Jim's time in the band - Reason to Believe (for the most part) keeps their same aggression and sound, although All or Nothing is different from Reason to Believe in that the lyrics are way more positive. Anyways, here’s my updated ranking of PW albums (from my favorite to least favorite):

The Fuse

Self-titled

About Time

Unknown Road

All or Nothing

From the Ashes

Full Circle

Land of the Free

Reason to Believe

Straight Ahead

Edited by thedude15 - 05/14/2012 at 16:17

thedude15 wrote: I don't agree with Fletcher that they were moving in a less aggressive direction in the last few years of Jim's time in the band - Reason to Believe (for the most part) keeps their same aggression and sound, although All or Nothing is different from Reason to Believe in that the lyrics are way more positive.

Hang on there, champ--Reason to Believe totally dropped the aggression of their earlier material. It was heavier and significantly slower, to the point where it was dragging it's knuckles on the ground as it jogged. All Or Nothing is WAY faster, and still better, for that matter, but both still pale in comparison to the first five albums.

oldmrfletcher wrote: the fuse?! yikes. 18 soldiers is the worst song pw has made...by far

Edited by vampailleur - 05/14/2012 at 20:56

LoL at Reason to Believe being slow and not aggressive.  Its a great Pennywise album and one of my favorites.  The first 5 tracks, minus the 2nd, are the best stuff Pennywise had done in a long time.  Something to Live For is incredible.  The album does slow down a little bit, but Pennywise always mixes alot of slow and fast songs together and some great tracks that really ripped are in the later half of the album.  

thats like 90% close to how i would rank them...i might've bumped up unknown road a spot ... no matter the case i guess it's safe to say that a good number of pw fans consider the top 3 (4) their best work and the bottom 3 the least favorite 3 , all rankery aside

Edited by frod79 - 05/15/2012 at 12:08

After a first listening, I found the album rather boring, not worth PW-->2003, not worth Ignite.

18 soldiers is the worst song pw has made...by far

Reading this I gave it a try because I did not remember it ... that song is some kind of torture ! (Well, not as much as Rancid's L.A. river.)

Now, I'll play the "sorting of PW albums" game too:

01. About time
02. Pennywise
03. The unknown road
04. Straight ahead
05. Wildcard+A word from the wise
06. Full circle
07. Land of the free
08. From the ashes
09. the fuse
10. All or nothing
11. Reason to believe

(Added Wildcard+A word from the wise, less sure about it's position though, depending on my mood I could switch albums in ranges [01-03], [05-07] and [09-10].)

Edited by LV97 - 05/15/2012 at 14:13