Bowling For Soup – Lunch. Drunk. Love. (Brando Records. Release Date: 30th Sept. 2013)
This one’s a little surprising. Bowling For Soup are a band I haven’t really thought of since I was about 14 and glued to Kerrang, impatiently suffering through a Lostprophets or a Something Corporate while waiting and praying for a Korn, a Rammstein or a System of a Down. A musical era that, in retrospect, is rather unfairly pilloried but none-the-less churned up some dross and any Kerrang viewer from that time can adopt the “I’ve seen unimaginable horror” air of a grizzled army veteran (Puddle of Mudd. Hoobastank. Here’s looking at you). Bowling For Soup however, for all they rose to prominence during that same era, never induced that haunted, thousand-yard stare the others did. And while I never owned any of their albums, the fact that when I see their name I can still hear the riff from ‘Girl All The Bad Guys Want’ (and can still picture said ‘girl’ from the video too), or the chorus of ‘1985’ (this reviewer, in his rock-loving/Pimp My Ride-loathing adolescence, got a kick out of the “music still on MTV” line) as clear as if I were still sitting in front of the TV screen shows they must being something right. Maybe, and I’m struggling with the doughy image of the band, nude and covered in chocolate sauce for the purposes of a Kerrang photo-shoot as I’m typing this, it’s because they just love what it is they do, they do it without any hint of self-importance and they make no excuses for it. I mean, pop-punker or not, who can’t identify with four normal dudes living the dream and having a blast doing it. And maybe that’s why, briefly, it sparked some joy in my younger, cynical self. You know, until Slipknot stamped it out.
Official video for ‘Real’
And that joie de vivre is still there. Lunch. Drunk. Love is Bowling For Soup’s 12th album in a near 20 year existence, and it’s a play on Punch Drunk Love if you’re unsure, or an idiot – you had to figure they’d go down the humour route. They’ve spent the best part of two decades doing it. And the band, on the highly appropriate opener ‘Critically Disdained’, make it clear that it’s a party you’re more than welcome to join, and if you don’t then they really couldn’t care less. There’s a pretty sweet lyric in there – “it’s easy to be unafraid, when you’re so critically disdained” – that underlines this ethos, a self-assuredness that anchors the craziness which is earnest and endearing. It serves the band well, and is one of the main reasons why Bowling For Soup have lasted the distance and aren’t blowing about in the post nu-metal breeze with the likes of Sum 41 and Alien Ant Farm – you need look no further than the fact that this album was funded by pledges from fans, an experiment that proved a resounding success. Everything you’d expect from Bowling For Soup is here in abundance; the frat-house humour and the pop-culture references, the big hooks and high-octane pop-punk of song such as ‘From The Rooftops’ and ‘Normal Chicks’ rubbing shoulders with the honest introspection of softer tracks like ‘Real’ and ‘How Far Can This Go’. There’s even room for a surprisingly faithful cover – Edie Brickell’s 1988 torch-song ‘Circle’. Singer Jaret Reddick still affects the same slacker drawl as he’s always done, the band remain as loud and defiantly unsubtle as ever. At no point does it ever sound forced or contrived – if that day ever arrived then you would have to, begrudgingly or not, admit that the sun was setting on Bowling For Soups’ career. But currently it’s shining as bright as it has done at any point over the years and the party is showing no signs of slowing down. 6.8/10
Andy McCabe
On a serious note, though the band are definitely not calling time on their career, this October will see the band grace these shores for the last, beer-soaked time for their UK Farewell Tour. BFS fan or not, you know it’ll be one hell of a send-off.