artist// four year strong
album// enemy of the world
label// universal motown
release date// march 9, 2010

Over the past two years of running things here at BWC, I’ve been subjected to more music than I can handle most of the time. It’s a constant struggle trying to find a balance between delving through the constant stream of new releases and sitting down to actually enjoy the albums that catch on. However, every once in a while a band drops something on your ears that is so undeniably catchy and immediate that you have to shun everything else away in favor of it. That’s what Four Year Strong did to me with their latest release Enemy Of The World.

Enter in the lead track “It Must Really Suck to be Four Year Strong Right Now” a hard hitting and tantalizing preview of all the goodies that lie ahead, featuring one of the most infectious breakdowns throughout the whole disc. EOTW waste no space pummeling through the subsequent 10 songs, accelerating at an exhausting pace full of jabbing hooks and knobbed-up production that take it a step above any previous work from the bands catalog

Whether it’s the riot inciting chorus of “Wasting Time (Eternal Summer)” or the perfected building into maniacal shouts of “The Body That Pays The Bill$”, Four Year Strong prove that they already know what they do well, and with EOTW they have taken that formula and simply turned up the knobs beyond their breaking point. The combination of co-vocalists Dan O’Connor and Alan Day complement each other throughout, displayed beyond perfection during the call and return shouts of “Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride”.

While EOTW contains some of the most “brutal” moments in Four Year Strong’s catalog (see the raucous ending of “What The Hell Is A Gigawatt?”) it also contains some of the more poppier productions the band have put to disc. “Find My Way Back” and “One Step At A Time” both find the band restraining themselves (i use that term VERY lightly) to create immediate pop that still carries the band’s trademarked bite.

By the end of your first listen through Enemy Of The World, you may very well feel like you’ve just been hit by a truck, and trust me that feeling doesn’t let up any through repeated listens. Enemy Of The World is a defining album in the staling genre that it represents, and deserves to be treated as such. I’ve had many awkward moments sitting at red-lights while blaring these songs out my window, probably looking like a madman or somebody having a seizure to nervous onlookers, but I could care less because I love this album SO MUCH, and that’s the beauty of discovering these rarities. So join along with me, roll your windows down, turn it up, and sing along.

mp3// wasting time (eternal summer)
mp3// what the hell is a gigawatt?
purchase// enemy of the world
myspace// four year strong

Related posts: (Hopefully! This is auto-generated)

1. stream// four year strong “enemy of the world”
2. new four year strong :: “wasting time (eternal summer)”
3. New Four Year Strong :: “It Must Really Suck To Be FYS Right Now”