BADMAN Records/Mom’s Basement Records, September 11, 2020
On Paradox, Proton Packs lean hard into catchy good songs.
Self-labeled “Ectopunks” Proton Packs have been kicking around for a while now, dropping singles, EP’s, splits, and full lengths dating back to 2005. Coming out of Italy, they’re part of the Ramones brigade that’s taken off in Europe, alongside other luminaries like The Manges, The Apers, and The Livermores. Paradox, the newest effort from Proton Packs, leans hard into catchy good songs that’ll shake you up and stick in your brain.
Proton Packs are really good at the pop thing. Paradox opener “Retrofuture” digs into a cool guitar riff. And the sort of Billie Joe Armstrong-meets-Andrea Manges vocal melodies and earworm guitar leads sound so good over top the galloping quick beat. “Man With The Eyepatch” and “Three Holes In My Head” stake claim to similar territory. “Eyepatch” has a really great cool down/pump up on the bridge while the chorus on “Head” has some of the best pop hooks on the record. Even poppier, “Business As Unusual” wallows in throbbing bass, sparkling 80’s-synths, and pulsing rhythm guitars. The chorus is pure pop candy. And a bunch of these hooks are going to get lodged in the deepest recesses of your brain.
While Proton Packs does fantastic pop stuff, they don’t avoid some more aggressive punk shades on Paradox. Songs like “Lucy In The Sky With Diagrams”, “802701”, and “Deadly Eye” have a little darker edge as a part of their punk rock blitz. The wonderfully-titled “Lucy” has an insistent Lillingtons-like guitar lead bouncing around some popping drums. “802701” (an apparent “Time Machine” reference) falls into a similar sort of thing, with some lead guitar on the chorus that feels like it would settle in nicely on Too Late Show. And the guitar riff on “Deadly Eye” sounds like something from Backchannel Broadcast while the double-tap snares pop off. Even “Paradox”, with some poppy synth additions, basks in an aggressive rhythm, a driving pace, and a cool bass. And the guitar riff on the bridge is fantastic and a little hostile.
The lyrics on Paradox seem to dig into sci-fi and dystopian themes with allusions to H.G. Wells and Burt Libe (“802701”), retrofuturism (“Retrofuture”, obviously), and coding and spies (“Enigma Machine”). And “Paradox” hits on a sort of existential theme, with trips into other existence (“I have become a specter”, “and isn’t it sweet when a pulsar beats like a human heart?”) and mathematics as a rooted element of life and disconnect (“now time’s an equation on a cartesian plane” and “feelings make no sense, they are the consequence, of numbers on a chart”). Sort of interesting stuff that might get your head drifting a bit.
Paradox has got a lot of good going on. The sugary pop moments don’t forget the punk rock, and the punk rock moments are never devoid of hooks and catchiness. Recommended.
Favorite song: “Retrofuture”
Favorite moment: the cool down/pump up on the bridge of “Man With The Eyepatch”
Favorite whatever else: weirdo thinker lyrics on “Paradox”
ryan is a reviewer and news editor for TGEFM. He’s very secretive, he might be an alien.
