Do you folks watch the show Queer Eye? Last season had an episode with a school. The kids that were graduating got to bury a time capsule. I have no clue when that capsule is supposed to be dug up. Listening to Salvations debut album Uncorrectable made me think of this episode a lot. The main reason being that Uncorrectable does sound a bit like an album that was buried some 15 to 20 years ago and has recently been unearthed.
Salvation is a French punk band made up by a couple of seasoned players. They self-recorded this album over time. So this is an album where a couple of recording sessions are put together. I was a bit surprised to read this in their promo, as I hear a very consistently produced album. That production is worth mentioning, it is very crisp and clear.
Listen to the intro and the first song of Uncorrectable and you can easily guess which bands inspired Salvation. If that position wasn’t already taken by other bands Salvation would be the band you would see if you would look up the definition of pop-punk in the dictionary. These other bands being the likes of Green Day, Blink 182, Simple Plan and (biggest influence) Sum 41.
I started out by telling Uncorrectable sounds like an album from a different era. It took me a while to write this review and one of the reasons is that I have a hard time pinpointing if that is a good thing or not. If you browse through my music collection you’ll find loads of music that was composed and played by folks that were born in the wrong era. So that shouldn’t be the biggest problem. After listening to this album a lot of times I have come to the conclusion that Salvation tries a bit too hard and copies their heroes too much.
The main problem I have with Salvation is that the band lacks a vision of its own. They look at what their heroes do and copy that. There is nothing wrong with that, but it does not necessarily make me want to listen to them, but rather to their heroes. For the next record there’s two things that the band can do that would make me like it more. They can simply (well, call it simple…) improve their songwriting. Get it from writing B-side tunes of the big bands to the level of their singles. Or they can include other influences, create a niche of their own.
Perhaps you think I am very harsh in this review. And I admit, I have enjoyed listening to Uncorrectable. Especially the first two songs (“Cry Loud” and “Echoes”) are pretty cool, but truth be told, chances are slim I will ever return to this album after finishing this review. This leads me to believe that genre enthusiasts will relish this release, but most other folks will just return to the bigger names if they feel they need another dose of pop punk.
