One Day Elliott

Punk from across the pond really just isn’t what it used to be. Bands like the Damned and Buzzcocks are long gone, and what’s left are British punk and pop-punk bands that sound identical to their American counterparts. There’s seemingly no spirit left; bands are just going through the motions to well, go through the motions. And I regret to say, One Day Elliott doesn’t fall far from that description.

They are set a bit apart by the fact that their songs are mostly in the four-to-five-minute range, but after several listens to this album, I’m not counting that in the ‘good’ column for the band. Yeah, the songs are four, five, six minutes, but the fact remains is that they’re all two and three minute-songs that drag on for far longer than they really should. The album’s opener, “01622,” is the perfect example of such. The song is really built around its chorus, and there’s two reasons why that’s unfortunate. The first is, that the chorus isn’t even very good, the second is that it’s repeated probably about six or seven times. That’s simply unnecessary. In close to six minutes, the only engaging part of the entire song is a mini guitar solo that’s far too brief. The second track is slightly redeeming, if only because it’s two minutes shorter.

“Piece of You” opens with a real bluesy kind of feel, thanks in large part to the guitar work, but that quickly dies off to leave in effect, just a run-of-the-mill pop-rock track. The chorus is bright and sounds pretty solid, but again here, they drag it out far too long. It’s a recurring theme in the album that won’t end with this song, a good thing that just drags on far long than it really needs to, and only the shortest song on the album is completely exempt from this rule.

“Two Night Stand’’ shows the band's true pop-punk form, and judging by some of the deviations worked into other tracks, this is really just what they should stick with. Sure, it’s still pop-punk, and no, it’s still nothing special, but it’s done in a way that really doesn’t sound all that bad. The guitars are big and present, the vocals soar in the chorus far above everything else; it’s just extremely well put together for that kind of song. “The Closer That I Get” could be considered in the same light, if again, it wasn’t so damn long. I feel like a broken record repeating this so many times, but it’s really a nagging issue that hampers what could otherwise be some solid pop-punk or pop-rock tracks. The last two songs are two of the longest, and their bloated nature makes for a great home on the skip button for my finger.

Seven songs, thirty-three minutes that could really be accomplished with better results in a little more than half that time. If they trim some fat next time around, it’ll be a decent product.