I’ll be honest, I get more and more bored with pop punk as newer bands emerge. There’s hardly ever a smaller pop-punk band that can catch my attention and keep it. However, Times New Roman has something special about them caught my ear. Sure, their sound can easily be described as pop punk, but there’s something different at the same time. The band’s latest effort, A Place To Rest Your Head, provides a nice familiar sound, and pulls it off extremely well.
A Place To Rest Your Head opens with the short yet effective “Slant Rhymes,” starting off with some guitar feedback, followed by a distant riff. As soon as the drum hits, things get going. Immediately, I notice there’s something very fun and catchy about the vocals. The intro song has a nice little punk beat section in the middle, and also has some awesome backing vocals and harmonies. Track two is “One Of My Own,” the first single off of the EP. The song has a very aggressive intro, but the verse that soon follows is extremely relaxed and catchy. It really makes for an awesome transition. The chorus is very memorable in this song.
“Higher Education” and “Twenty Something” keep things going strong. Both are equally as catchy and fun as the first two songs on A Place To Rest Your Head. I really, really enjoyed the piano and vocal melodies at the very end of “Twenty Something,” though, and the song really goes out in an unforgettable manor. “Blinded” brings some awesome backing vocals, yet again. Next up is my favorite song on the EP, “Haverchuck,” which is probably the fastest and most aggressive song. It’s an incredible song with a small piano section that reminds me a bit of The Wonder Years’ piano work. “Haverchuck” goes out with a bang, with some back and forth vocals that instantly shoot right back into the fast punk beat.
Closing out A Place To Rest Your Head is “Debt Repaid”, an acoustic track. It’s an extremely calming song. In my opinion, it’s a fantastic way to close the EP, especially after the fastest song on the entire thing. The song transitions into full band towards the end. Overall, the EP is really solid. Nothing out of this world, but definitely not average. I find myself loving the parts that show up the least throughout. Times New Roman can pull out the fast-paced pop punk extremely well. At the end, I only have three things I would want to see more of with the band’s next release: more backing vocals, more faster parts and a little bit more aggression, like on “Haverchuck.” Overall, it’s a very promising and enjoyable EP, and it’s a great listen.
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