It doesn’t happen very often but every now and again you’ll find a pop punk band releasing a record that gets best described as seminal. These are the records that appeal to the masses and generates life long fans while never getting boring. Yellowcard’s ‘Ocean Avenue’, New Found Glory’s ‘Sticks and Stones’, and The Starting Line’s ‘Say It Like You Mean It’ are prime examples of these albums. We Are The In Crowd’s ‘Weird Kids’ is going to be one of those albums.
A three year break between releases has done wonders for the band. We Are The In Crowd have gone from twee pop songs that all sounded fairly similar, without much depth or meaning… to well written, ferocious and exciting pop punk anthems. You can tell that WATIC have really put the time into it and thought carefully about what sort of songs they wanted to write. Their songs remain catchy and fun but this album does display a much more mature sound, and shows a hell of a lot of depth that perhaps wasn’t as evident in ‘Best Intentions’. ‘Weird Kids’ is an album built for big venues with Tay Jardine’s vocals being a major highlight throughout.
‘Weird Kids’ sees the band fluctuate between staple pop punk topics… love, being yourself, etc, but they do delve into more serious territory with themes of depression and death found within. While the music is still going to be aimed at teens it does show the band have more to them than being the industry’s next big thing and the fact that these themes are touched on with maturity and tact is important. The dual vocals between Jardine and guitarist Jordan are still here in abundance, none more so than in the anthemic ‘The Best Thing (That Never Happened)’ while ‘Long Live The Kids’ and ‘Attention’ find the band focussing on themes of being yourself with the former acting as a potential stand out on the record with its big intro that gives all the members a time to shine.
The album finishes on a more sombre note with the slowed down ‘Don’t You Worry’ and ethereal ‘Windows In Heaven’ a particularly emotive song that sees Jardine sing about the death of her Father. Both songs change the tone of the album and gives it that edge that makes it so good in the first place.
We Are The In Crowd have a clear demographic and the themes and variety found within ‘Weird Kids’ will definitely make an impression, it has a sense of being an important album, an album that could join the immortal ranks of the likes of ‘Sticks & Stones’ or ‘Ocean Avenue’ in the sense of being one of those seminal pop punk albums that acts as a soundtrack to growing up for the fourteen year olds of today.
JESS BRANDLER