Seems like one of Canada's main exports in music lately has been of the pop-punk kind.
That's a more welcome sign than of course the likes of Nickelback or Justin Bieber as there's tons of hidden gems in the great white north including Kelowna, British Columbia's Count Me In. Consisting primarily of the duo Jason Keeley and Alex Thompson along with a handful of other friends Count Me In seems to be a blend of almost all the main pop-punk heavy weights you can think of including Blink 182, Sum 41, New Found Glory and All Time Low among others, further evidenced by the hefty list of stated influences in the info tab on their Facebook page.
She's Your Problem Now starts off with almost choir-sounding chant in the song "Six Months". A good indicator of what's to come in the following tracks although I'm not going to lie the beginning part felt a little cringe-worthy but it won me over by the end of the song and warmed me up to tracks like "Homesick for the Homeless" and "If I Go Down, You'll Go Down Harder" both songs with great melodies and upbeat tempos that keep a happy and hopeful mood in your head. Lyrics (and song titles in that matter) seem to speak of past relationships and girlfriends that did not work out - kind of run of the mill stuff you'd expect from a pop punk act but why the need to fix it if it's not broken anyways?
A few woah's and catchy choruses later we have the track "The Light That You Left Me" which is a mellow acoustic track that feels a bit like an unreleased demo take of the actual song. Either way it's an alternate approach to their general pop punk feel and a welcome sign to the album's overall sound however production could have maybe been done a little different in terms of mixing, maybe increased the Gain and Mid's for a more powerful and in effect, empathetic feel to the song. Still a great track not to be missed.
In contrast we have "No Good With Names" which happens to be the heaviest song on the whole release. Starting off with a heavy introduction leading to the verse singing about what seems to be about finding your way in the colossal clusterfuck known as life. Pretty relatable lyrics to people of this age, the song follows a standard formula of the whole intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus equation but that's not necessarily a bad thing especially since the chorus stands out with it's own catchy melody and hopeful, vibrant lyrics.
By the looks of it they have not been too active recently in 2015. I'm not entirely sure why but perhaps they'll be in the swing again sometime in the fall but as their lyrics state in "What a Lie" - 'You'll never forget me but you'll try, acting like I'm another boy, you won't be going home you say', in some ways this is pretty relatable to the situation they're in right now besides that we won't try to forget them if it's possible.
Cool band, definitely carrying on the torch of their predecessors.