Since bursting onto the scene with ‘Real Talk’ back in 2010, Man Overboard have worked tirelessly, complimenting their full length releases with a wealth of singles, EPs and splits, and here they are just five years later, with ‘Heavy Love’, their fourth album. It’s a record that finds the band reflecting on what has been a time of great personal change for their members and this period of upheaval has influenced the lyrics and music throughout ‘Heavy Love’ giving it a different tone to previous releases.
‘Now That You’re Home’ initially catches you off guard with the lo-fi Weezer-inspired intro that soon leads into a crunchy pop-rock track. It’s a slightly underwhelming start to the album, but one that shows that Man Overboard aren’t afraid to tinker with their well-established formula from time to time. That being said, ‘She’s On Fire’ adopts a similar experimental style and isn’t particularly memorable either.
Thankfully, sandwiched between those two tracks are solid gold hits such as ‘Borderline’ which is built around the much-loved vocal interplay of Nik Bruzzese and Zac Eistenstein, and the punchy ‘Reality Check’, which is up there with the best songs that Man Overboard have written. ‘Cliffhanger’ is also fantastic, as the charging drums and tight riffs lend the track a sense of urgency, whilst also showing Man Overboard heading in a slightly harder direction.
In the past, despite their stream of near constant releases, Man Overboard have always managed to write albums that strike a balance between consistency and quality, but unfortunately it’s less clear cut this time as the rest of ‘Heavy Love’ is a bit of a mixed bag. For every brilliant song that conveys the passion and emotion of its subject such as ‘Invisible’, there is the dull pop-punk-by-numbers of ‘Deal’ and ‘A Love That I Can’t Have’.
Out of all their albums, it’s ‘Real Talk’ that has gained a lasting status as a pop-punk classic, so it’s perhaps inevitable that there will always be comparisons made between it and anything they release. And as packed as ‘Heavy Love’ is with harmonies, sing-along choruses, and clever lyrics, it falls short of Man Overboard’s usually high standards. ‘Heavy Love’ may feature, at its core, the bitter-sweet melodic pop-punk that Man Overboard do so well, but it doesn’t always gel in the instantly infectious way that it has in the past. In the end ‘Heavy Love’ is a good but not great album that sees Man Overboard continue to evolve but losing a little of what makes them stand out along the way.
CHRIS HILSON