I love Set Your Goals, but the popularity of the band's amalgamation of pop-punk and melodic hardcore has brought forth a million and a half wannabes. Sure, New Found Glory started it all (though they pretty much stuck to pop-punk), but I'll be damned if I haven't heard ten new clones this week alone.
Philadelphia's The Wonder Years are the latest band to come to my attention mixing together pop-punk and hardcore tones into one sound. Where The Wonder Years do attempt to distinguish themselves is with the incorporation of snyths/keyboards. So, after the math is done you end up with result of a one-night-stand between New Found Glory and Reggie and the Full Effect. The album has some really bright moments - “My Geraldine Lies Over the Delaware” - but it also has it fair share of pitfalls - “Racing Trains.”
I'm normally a sucker for this type of fast-paced one second, open-chord pogo the next pop-punk, but The Wonder Years seem to spread themselves just a bit too thin with their varying influences. If they lost the keyboards/snyths, I could enjoy this a bit more. The 8-bit Casio sound really detracts from the feel of the album.
