Thousand Islands Records – May 22, 2020
The Shorts do super-fast pop-punk, and they do it pretty well
The Shorts are new to me. From what I gather, they’re a three piece out of Ballarat, Australia. Brodie’s on drums, Danny plays guitar, and Sharpy does bass. They all help out singing. And they’ve got several previous releases dating back to 2014, playing around with Fat Wreck-indebted pop-punk. On the newest, Tango, they keep it going.
Tango opens with “Sherlock”, a sort of mid-tempo (for them, at least) song with an insistent running guitar riff, a percussive-heavy drive, and some unique syllable emphasis. It’s sort of differently complex, and a pretty cool opener that is actually a bit different from most of the rest of the record. “Walls” is another one with some good surprises. It’s got this simmering intro that goes to an energetic punk blast with crash cymbals careening all over the place. But this one’s set apart by the backing vocals. Lots of punk songs do the “ahh” or “whoa” backing vocals thing, and most of the time I’m into it. But on “Walls”, the backing vocals do an odd trick with the “ahh’s” sung in a unique pattern and with a surprising melody. It hooks me.
That goodness being said, my choice moments on Tango occur when The Shorts play it straight and execute it well. “K-Man” is a terrific song about that friend we all know that always takes things just a little too far. The chorus soars and is catchy like crazy. During the chorus, the shouted backing vocals get me thinking of NOFX, which is kind of a decent comparison for a lot of this stuff. But my favorite of the bunch is “Shady Ladies”, a two-minute hyper blast. According to the band, “Shady Ladies” is apparently about one of the guys in The Shorts having too much to drink and waking up sans wallet, shoes, or pants. But what makes this one go is the chorus. The melody and vocals (both lead and backing) are fetching and contagious. Good stuff.
The only song that never really lands for me is “Gerard Never Made It To Brim”. “Gerard” opens with the crackling sound of a record, soon accompanied by an acoustic guitar and heavily reverbed vocals before breaking into a fairly mellow uptempo song. The guitars are a bit more nuanced and toned down and the mood of the song feels more serious than the rest of this stuff. In that way, it just seems a little too far removed from the rest of what The Shorts have going for them.
Anyway, I’m walking away from Tango pretty impressed. The Shorts pull off the super-fast pop-punk stuff well, injecting the energy with mostly good-to-great melodies that’ll worm into your brain quick.
Why you might like this:
- You miss the 1990’s Fat Wreck Chords sound
- You like your pop-punk with a bit greater emphasis on the punk part; lots of hooks and good melodies, played real fast
Why you might not:
- You tired of the Fat Wreck Chords sound and haven’t found your way back
ryan is a reviewer and news editor for TGEFM. He’s very secretive, he might be an alien.
