If you were to tell teenager Eden that he’d one day write about a pop-punk band with enthusiasm, he would have laughed in your face and called you a poser or something stupid like that. Luckily, I’ve worked hard on shedding my edgy teenage persona (unlike so many people in the metal scene) and can today enjoy a genre that’s often rightfully maligned but which also contains plenty of great music. Which brings me to Tiny Moving Parts, one of the best and most moving bands in the genre. Their approach to pop-punk, very much influenced by the late 90’s and the mid 00’s, when the genre enjoyed an MTV fueled explosion, is spliced with math rock influenced, adding much to the variety of what can be a highly repetitive genre. To hear more of how that works, head on down below!
Choosing “Caution” as the lead single from the album was a really good idea; the tapping which leads to the chorus, the power of that chorus and its screams, the great balance with the verses, all of these make this track really, really fucking good. Sure, it’s catchy and short and kind of sappy (the lyrics are classic pop-punk/teenage angst) but it also hits hard and sounds great. It’s a perfect track to the sounds of which you can release pent up energies. Elsewhere on the album you find more iterations on this idea, like the even more arena friendly “Whale Watching” with its furious drumming or the brighter “Feel Alive” with it’s open chords, sweet backing vocals and its fleeting leads.
Bottom line, the just released Swell is another great album in Tiny Moving Parts’ career, representing their commitment to making pop-punk in the here and now. Should you choose to let go of your cultural pretensions, there’s something here to be enjoyed, in modes which might be somewhat at odds with darker genres but not less pleasing or accessible. Give it a try!