Labels: Newest Industry
Review by: Mike Whelan
The Paperbacks could be Canada’s answer to the Get Up Kids. They aren’t all the way there yet “” which is why I say they “could be’ “” but there are bands who do melodic poppy-punk well and there are bands who don’t. Thankfully for The Paperbacks they fall into the first category.
“An Episode of Sparrows’ is 13 tracks of upbeat, feel-good, melodic rock. The Canadian quintet certainly know how to write and play a good tune, and while they may not be as polished or as catchy as the Get Up Kids, this early effort shows every bit as much promise as “Four Minute Mile’ did. If not more.
It isn’t all sweetness and light though. “An Episode of Sparrows’ swerves between the sort of low-key indie rock made famous (ahem) by the likes of Crosstide and Knapsack and the upbeat, poppy sound peddled by the likes of the aforementioned Get Up Kids and Gameface. Sometimes the sound can get a little familiar. Almost as if 13 tracks was a little ambitious and The Paperbacks only really had ten songs. But even despite this the sound isn’t one that will grate “” between the slow opener “I Suffer This Like A Dream’ and the fast-paced “Perpetrators of Art’ there is more quality than some bands show in a whole career, and this is even before other album highlights like “If I Make It Through This Winter’ and “My Landscape Is Not Land’ are taken into consideration.
The Paperbacks might sound like a half a dozen other bands, but to write them off as a band simply failing to copy a five-year-old sound is doing them a great disservice. “An Episode of Sparrows’ is unashamedly clean and bright – but most importantly, it’s just good.