Review - The Wonder Years

Band: The Wonder Years
Album: Get Stoked On It!
Label: No Sleep Records
Rating: 3 out 5

The Wonder Years fall under a little subgenre that I like to call popcore. For those who can’t figure it out, it’s a mix between pop punk and hardcore. Basically take Set Your Goals and Motion City Soundtrack and you should get a pretty good idea what The Wonder Years sounds like. Like many other pop punk bands The Wonder Years like to sing about random and funny topics like the Kool-Aid Man, pirates going to the prom, dinosaurs going extinct and the constant anxiety felt by the wife of a ninja. It’s clear that on their debut album Get Stoked On It! the band is out to have a good time and make fun music.

Despite the album’s overall catchiness, opening track “Keystone State Dude-core” doesn’t seem well placed on the album. It might have been better located in the middle of the record as an interlude between two songs because the song alone lacks a little in the catchy department. A better choice would have been to open the album with the track “Bout to Get Fruit Punched, Homie,” which is probably the best song on the album. This track really demonstrates the best qualities of the band: Jordan Pundik-like vocals, Motion City Soundtrack keyboards, and Comeback Kid group vocals. In addition, Set Your Goal fans that are looking for something else to listen to should really enjoy this release.

Get Stoked On It! is a fun listen for lovers of popcore with lyrics that are ridiculously funny. Will this be anybody’s favorite album (or band for that matter)? I would venture to say no. Still it’s a decent debut album and should allow The Wonder Years to continue making music for a living. On their next release I would like to see them be a little bit more experimental with their sound and separate themselves from the crowd.