‘Well, it was ugly but we made it this far.’
When I usually get an album to review, I press play and let it do its thing, but when my friend Jamie sent me this, I quickly scrolled to the end and began there. It was my dessert first moment.
Bowling For Soup are a class act, lots of fun, frolics and frivolity, amongst the cutesy carnage that is Pop Punk. Plenty of singalong moments here but I had to start with probably my favourite ‘Girl All The Bad Guys Want’ an undeniably infectious tune, I just keep replaying it over and over.
‘She went to Cleveland with some guy named Leland’
We are celebrating the 20th anniversary of A Hangover You Don’t Deserve and what a throwback, timeless classics, movers and shakers making them sit pretty at the top of their genre. Pop Punk hi-jinks as they slug it out with a 36 track album, each song a golden nugget, each one with its own story, its own worth. At track 26 we have a very important message with ‘Mental Health Moment’ and I’d like to take a moment just to explain a little here. I had already started reviewing this when I was mercilessly sheep-dipped in the cauldron of misery. Things were extremely fraught, and I just dropped everything. I know I’m late, but I couldn’t leave this unfinished. I thank you for your patience.
With Dragonforce Sam in the audience we get ‘Last Call Casualty’ I love how some bands support each other, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Er, you can stop giggling at the back- ahem. Moving swiftly on, we celebrate with the band an album that ‘doesn’t need fixing’ we can all agree that BFS are consummate entertainers, they tell it like it is, because life doesn’t hold back, it gives you everything from the joy to the sorrow, we see the best of human nature and the worst. This band know how to put it all together to music and allow us to sing our suffering out loudly.
A night to get things off your chest and shout into the air, as BFS return to Manchester in spite of being told that people would not show up as they had played their recently.
Allegiance is something that cannot be bought, I do feel that the metal community will live and die by the bands they hold close.
‘I tried to knock on your window, but I set off your alarm.’
So, if I get drunk and call you up, don’t get pissed and don’t hang up, because through it all I will always be the girl all the bad guys want.
Azra Pathan
Bowling For Soup – A Hangover You Definitely Deserve (Live) out now.