Mom's Basement Records, 19 February 2021
Goin' Places are here to “Save The World” on new full-length.
I was a Ramones-inspired pop punk dork when I was in high school, trying to get my hands on whatever buzzing new record fell from the likes of bands like Screeching Weasel, The Queers, The Mr. T Experience, Groovie Ghoulies, Riverdales, and many others. I loved the energy, the snottiness, and the catchiness, and I loved to sing along. During my first couple of years in college, I even taught myself to drum and played in a Ramones-indebted band. But then, after a while, I drifted away from the pop punk simplicity and left much of that music behind for a while, seeking out a range of out-there music and making ridiculously pretentious and embarrassing claims about “art” and seriousness and such.
Then, a funny thing happened. I got old and came back to the stuff that got me through high school. I started to once again appreciate the simplicity and the fun of the music. And I realized it was about the songs. The sort of less-is-more approach and the idea of writing the best pop song within some particular confines became intriguing to me and the music became endearing again. On this re-eval, I took a deep dive and found a bunch of great music that I missed out on during my pop punk check-out. One of the albums that I all of a sudden “discovered” was Goin' Places 2002 record Girl Songwriting 101. Sure, I was 10 years late to the party, but it still hit just right. After falling hard, I looked into more stuff by them only to find that they only had one other full length to their name, 2012's stellar Relationship Sneakers. Then, crickets.
Until now. The pandemic/quarantine has seemingly revived Goin' Places from their slumber, with a number of singles leading up to this new record Save The World. As I've already raved about the leadoff song “Save The World” while reviewing their Better Things To Do EP, I'll skip it here (though you should certainly check it out). The other couple of early-drop singles, “Cell Phone Girl” and “This Song Is Not About A Girl” are also fantastically hooky. “Cell Phone Girl” is fun and bouncy and the rhythmic stutters stick hard and “This Song Is Not” is funny and self-deprecating as both drummer Victor and guitarist Richie trade-off verses about the “all songs sound the same” critique while simple bubblegum guitars and Frank's straight ahead bass bounce along with some poppy drums. A couple of other stand-outs feel like they could've come from the brains of some of the more revered 1950's musicians. “Across The Room”'s title makes me think of a Beach Boys title and endearing back-and-forth vocals from Richie and Victor hum along to a guitar riff that sounds nicked from Buddy Holly. I get a Beatles-vibe from the title “And I Want You” (I'm pretty sure I'm thinking of “And I Love Her”) and it plays around with a great revved up guitar riff and some simple syllabic phrasing that gets catchier with each listen. And closer “Recover” opens with some pristine acoustic guitar picking before vamping into Buddy Holly territory again. The backing vocals on this one are gorgeous and I really sink into the song structure, loving the slowed guitar strums keeping Richie's voice company before buzzing back to life for one last go-round at the end. It's just great songwriting. No tricks, no gimmicks. Just goodness.
And so it goes throughout Save The World. Simple pop songs like “4:04”, “Another Blackout Night”, and “The End?” pull no punches. They just buzz and bounce along with earworm guitars, play-along bass, and easy to sing along with lyric phrasings. No show-boating to be found anywhere. And when the songs hedge a bit more melancholic on the contemplative and hesitant “I Don't Know” or nostalgic on the regretful and naive “Live Those Times”, they still throw in mid-song change-ups (the acoustic bridge on “I Don't Know”) and to-die-for hooks (the guitar hook at the end of each verse of “Live Those Times”) that get all the right neurons firing in my brain. Even the near-the-end detour of jangle pop romance “Message In A Dream” (and it's out-of-nowhere harmonica) somehow works. This is the kind of stuff I want to hear.
Save The World might just do that for a few people. It's a buzzing good time that offers up just the escapism a few of us might want or need right about now. Goin' Places have a bubblegum gem on their hands. Let's just hope it's not another near-decade between releases. Highly recommended.
Favorite song: “Save The World”…this one's a hard call, but that first single is still burned into my brain
Favorite moment: maybe the slow down, rev up at the end of closer “Recover” is pretty nice
Favorite whatever else: I love the comic book cover art; seems kind of perfect for the record
ryan is a reviewer and news editor for TGEFM. He's very secretive, he might be an alien.