Hailing from Atlanta, Last November is one of the new up and coming bands on Myspace and on college radio stations. Their newest and sophomore effort, an album entitled “Over the Top or Under the Weather,” has received play on over 60 commercial radio stations and over one million plays on myspace. Songs from the album, most notably the new single “The Bumper Sticker Song,” have received air time on MTV shows like “Real World” and “Road Rules” and on Oxygen’s “Bad Girls Club.” And its unlikely that this trend is about to change anytime soon.

You see, Last November is exactly the kind of repetitive, pseudo clever, poppish, punkish, emo-ish, kind of music that makes waves on high school campuses and in indie rock venues across the country. Its not that they aren’t good musicians, or that the lyrics are awful exactly - because they aren’t on either count - but there is very little on “Over the Top…” that is new, particularly creative, or that explores the value of the genre or art form. The album is essentially a regurgitation of common themes from the post-punk, now post emo, music genre. Call it pop punk rock, call it what you want, but it amounts to copy cat. But thats what we have in today’s modern music scene. To get a read on just what Last November sounds like think a combination of Brand New (who appears to have been heavily influential in L.N.’s development) without the vocal range and lyrical bite, Sleeping At Last without the airy melodies, and even, perhaps, a band like the All American Rejects without the creepy music videos but with the same vocal strain and post-punk drive. Throw in some My Chemical Romance too, for good measure.

Now, all that being said, let me be clear. It’s not that the guys from Last November are poor musicians, nor am I insisting that “Over the Top or Under the Weather” is a flat-out bad album. Fact is, they’re pretty talented guys and some of their songs are catchy and interesting. For die hard fans of the genre they will likely be a nice new find.

But it’s becoming abundantly clear that this post-pop-punk-emo genre must soon change or die. Last November would be well served to travel to the edges of the genre and attempt to re-invent themselves in a way that also attempts to reinvent the repetitive sound of the genre. They should throw away the now commonplace, evermore trite, cliches of their genre - both lyrically and musically - and instead focus on broadening their vision. Music, especially punk rock, has a great ability to be transformative and transcendent; it has the great potential to uplift and inspire listeners, to draw from them new breath and life. Hopefully, bands like Last November will take this truth to heart.

Indeed, there was a time when punk rock meant something, when it captured some of the truths and pains and dreams of a specific time and place and era. That was it’s great ability. It was rough and edgy and harsh - and it had to be. How could it be anything else? If punk rock used to be harsh like good black coffee, today it’s more like a McDonald’s iced latte. Nowadays, these punk-ish genres capture little more than teenage angst and uneasiness and the bands and their songs fail to be powerful or meaningful because they are mostly repetitions and regurgitations. Insight and inventiveness are often by-products of one another. Hopefully, the guys from Last November will use the talents that this album proves they have in a new and creative way, in a way that sheds new and unique light on a genre with great potential to be meaningful and to speak to masses of people.

If you like the genre as it is though, you’ll likely love “Over the Top or Under the Weather.”

Artist: Last November

Album: Over the Top or Under the Weather

Release date:?

Our Rating: 6.0

This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 9:24 am and is filed under Album Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.