Mom’s Basement Records / Shield Recordings, June 1, 2020
Giant Eagles Second Landing is aces
The Apers, The Windowsill, and Lone Wolf have done a lot of good (and heavily Ramones-indebted) stuff. They’ve also given us Giant Eagles, a sort of Dutch punk supergroup featuring members of each. And now Giant Eagles are giving up the follow-up to their debut, Giant Egos, this one appropriately titled Second Landing.
Second Landing cements Giant Eagles place in the pop punk pantheon. They do some of the same Ramones-style stuff that the parent bands do, but they like to throw 80’s synths on top and make this super sugary pop that hits so right. Significantly, they get the mix right, too. The vocals hover at just the right spot while the synth sounds set the songs off rather than overwhelm. It’s a delicate thing done well.
There’s lots of good stuff on Second Landing, the kind of stuff that’ll keep you coming back. A few of the songs stick pretty close to a Ramones blueprint to fantastic results. “My Wish Is Your Command” is a fast-paced guitar driven buzzsaw with simple phrases set to repeat. At different points, they repeat the song title a bunch and then do the same with “this all takes too long” before landing on “no more patience, no more mercy”. Really, it reminds me fondly of certain Ramones songs that don’t bother with a lyrical narrative, instead using succinct lines to make their point. “Everything Is Lost” is a mid-tempo stomper with my favorite kind of “whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh’s” coming right out of the gate. With a bit of melancholy and some great vocal hooks that land just right, this one reminds me a bit of Teenage Bottlerocket. And “Out of Love” might be one of my favorites on here. It’s got a great chord progression and one-note synths that add a bit to the melody, and the vocal hooks suck you in. They’re fantastic at this stuff.
But Giant Eagles know how to diversify, and Second Landing is awesome for it. Lead single and record opener “Bloodlust Tonight” is a driving mid-tempo song with tasty synths set well against a rock and roll Ramones backdrop. It’s got an ominous vibe to it and vocal hooks on the chorus that’ll get you singing along. “Evil Robot Nation” pulls off a similar thing while singing about going to space to fight robots that are out to destroy humankind. And the synths on this one are pretty simple one note melodies, but they sound so good. Even “Supreme”, with some ridiculously bright synths, pulls me in with the earworm melodies and soaring chorus. And “I Don’t Love Nobody” is pure sugar, perplexing though it is. It’s synth heavy from the start and comes across as a chintzy pop song with dumb lyrics (“I don’t love nobody baby, I don’t love nobody but myself”). The synth solo skirts the edge of taste, the song makes me think of The Killers without the pretentious fascinations, and the vocal phrasings sort of remind me of The Police’s “Don’t Stand So Close To Me”, and yet it works. Not sure how to explain that.
It’s kind of weird. Despite the band’s pedigree, I feel like the 80’s synths should send me running away, but they don’t. It’s all done so well and the songs are so good, that I keep coming back. Second Landing is where it’s at.
You might like this if:
- You like catchy pop stuff, 80’s synth-soaked songs, and soaring hooks
- You like Ramones, but also like when Ramones tried some new stuff out
You might not if:
- You like Ramones, but not so much when they add new sounds to their drums/bass/guitar attack
ryan is a reviewer and news editor for TGEFM. He’s very secretive, he might be an alien.
