Monster Zero Records, 1 September, 2020
Neon Bone drop a pop punk record loaded with hooks, a little pace, and a bunch of throwback moments.
Neon Bone are part of the Ramones army swarming out of Europe. Hailing from Münster, Germany, the band started as a solo vehicle before forming into a full-on band. Make It Last, the band’s latest, doesn’t do much nonsense. Instead, the record is loaded pretty much front-to-back with well written and tightly structured songs that bop back and forth between power pop and pop punk. Verses and choruses hit like they should and bridges move the songs along without meandering into dumb pretentious lands.
Make It Last has a lot of catchy power pop moments, with parts that seem to draw from the pop of bands like Weezer, Cheap Trick, early Beatles, and the fictitious Wonders. Over and again, Neon Bone show a love of one of my favorite simple pop song tricks: the double-tap snare. “Baby Don’t You Cry” matches the double-tap up with a great vocal melody while the double-taps on “Girl You Should Know” precede a drop-away hook before each verse line. “Surrender To You” also does the double-tap thing, coupling it with handclaps (one of my favorite parts of over-the-top pop songs) and a melody that sounds ripped from the 1950’s. All three are super fun. And while “It’s Up To You” eschews that favored snare trick, avoiding any chance of overkill in the process, the melody and backing vocals add up to remind me of something lifted from the That Thing You Do soundtrack or something. It’s another great super catchy power pop song.
And when Neon Bone speeds up the pace and buzzes through some punk songs, they pull those off convincingly, too. The lead-off, “Number One” really wins me over with the awesome fuzzy guitar tone that ends up playing all over the record. Everything sounds like glorious caffeinated melody and the vocals sound great. Same goes for “Another You” and it’s ascending 1-4-5 guitar riff and “Tripping” and it’s simple pacey drums and great vocal hooks. But maybe my favorite of the faster punk songs (and quite possibly my favorite song on Make It Last) is “You’re Eating My Brain”. This one has all sorts of drive, a super hooky vocal melody that drags you in whether you want to or not, and my favorite backing vocals on the record. I’ve gone back to this one a bunch and can’t get enough of it. Exhilarating stuff.
Make It Last leaves an impression. Neon Bone doesn’t miss many opportunities to get people singing along. They buzz and pound and tumble over layered vocals and harmonies. And they do it all pretty well. Make It Last is a cool record.
Favorite song: “You’re Eating My Brain”
Favorite moment: 1950’s vocal melody on “Surrender To You”
Favorite whatever else: the fuzzy guitar tone all over Make It Last are choice
ryan is a reviewer and news editor for TGEFM. He’s very secretive, he might be an alien.
