I always wonder why some bands need more than four members and sometimes you feel that some could even strip themselves down to a trio when you often have two people playing almost totally similar guitar parts with one of them singing. Therefore, my defenses were up a bit when I heard that Toronto's the Victim Party comprised of six individuals--this seemed rather excessive for a self-proclaimed "pop-punk" band and I was worried that although this could work well it could just as easily come across as a bit of a case of too many cooks.
Well, "Poets and Other Assholes" kicks open the door and immediately hits me with a blaze of guitars, drums and big group chorus parts causing me to forget totally any doubts that I had as I quickly become immersed in the high octane and sugar free melodic punk rock delivered by this sextet. It becomes apparent that the six members of the band help create a sound that isn't reliant on one vocalist as duties are shared (one gritty, punk male, Colin Lichti; one awesome, more rock-sounding, female, Tabi Irani. They're married to each other) throughout the album, thus adding a diversity to the songs that is refreshing and helps maintain that high octane momentum from start to finish.
Although there is no need to single out any tracks here there are a few which I think are worthy of some mention for one reason or another:
"Singularity" gives a massive nod to Green Day's "Welcome To Paradise" within this song, which cannot be an accident but is actually just a small part of an extremely good song.
"Yellow Jackets" is one of those songs where Irani's vocals have the same sort of powerful quality as Carrie Akre, whose voice is one that stands out and is impossible to ignore.
"Chorus of Betas" begins with a guitar sound reminiscent of that to be found on Stiff Little Fingers' "Falling Down" but although it's to be heard underpinning the song, it certainly doesn't sound like that track in any way. In places it's got more of a Fest-like gruff punk feel to it and again only serves to highlight the variety found here.
"100 Laces" is close to being an extension of "Poets and Other Assholes" and Lichti really does have a bit of a Dillinger Four thing in his vocals on this track, which adds to the riffs that could also have been co-opted from a D4 song. It has to be said that this album opens and closes with short, sharp songs that bookend the other 10 tracks perfectly.
It's a quarter of the way through the year and I was beginning to think that 2012 was going to be the year of the single/EP as few album releases had really excited me but The Worst Party on Earth has shown me that I should not be writing the long-playing year off yet and although we have three-quarters of the year to go, this is highly likely to feature in my top ten unless some truly exceptional albums are on their way.
Why is this so good? Well, that has to be due to the fact that all the songs are catchy and effervescent, delivered with huge amounts of melody, interspersed with hints of street punk, including a vocalist who reminds me of one of my all-time favorite singers, Carrie Akre (formerly of both Hammerbox and Goodness), and dual vocals which complement each other perfectly, with the end result being that is a consistently enjoyable record that deserves to be recognised for its overall quality. Basically this record makes me feel so invigorated it's unbelievable--the more I play it the more I love it and the more it is becoming a fixture in my life.