If you feel like you are stuck in the 7th grade these days, Simple Plan’s new album, Still Not Getting Any, would be an appropriate choice of music. Unfortunately for Simple Plan, most of us don’t want to go back to junior high. A relatively new band, Simple Plan is a group of five guys that mimic the style of more refined punk bands like Blink-182 and Sum 41, except that they fail to produce even the few catchy tunes that brought the others to stardom. The pangy guitar and repetitive choruses are like an itch inside your ear that just doesn’t feel right. Even a Q-tip won’t help remove the cyclical noise that falls far short of the popular songs these guys claim to produce.

In fact, put nicely, Still Not Getting Any is borderline annoying. The band insists on their website for listeners to lose any preconceived notions of what punk music is because they simply don’t fit into any category, claiming, “But maybe it’s time to forget what you know, because Simple Plan couldn’t care less about people’s opinions of them.” Well that’s certainly good; otherwise I think they would have low levels of self-esteem. That is, unless they pride themselves on their 14-year-old fan base.
[Aaron Marienthal yearns for a simpler time, one of carpools, Pogs and junior high dances.]

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