Living with Lions - Dude Manor - 10

Labels: Adeline
Review by: Caroline Honour

A nice droning riff starts this album, before morphing into some catchy guitar chords. I think this is meant to be the intro, but I can see it being so much more!! Ahh, that’s more like it, it leads into the second track, with some anthemic starter chords and then the singer comes in, and it becomes obvious that this is punk, with a poppy edge. It’s fairly generic, but I like it nonetheless. The breakdown with the drums and guitars is pretty sweet too. I can see this being at a hit at some freshman’s BBQ, with everyone singing along with their beers held high. ‘Colors’ also opens with a catchy riff, and breaks into more three chord pop-punk. I’m getting a bit bored by this point, but it redeems itself by the next track, ‘Mark Has Bedroom Eyes’, which sounds like if Saves the Day had taken crack and swallowed a bunch of knives. Needless to say, it’s fairly good, and I can see good things for this band, especially for fans of pop punk stuff like MxPx. “Hope is over the hill!” Sing it with me!! ‘Said and Done’ has more drum beats than I’ve had hot dinners, and there’s a nice call and response part, as well as some cool harmonies. The cd ends with “A Noisy Noise Annoys the Boys” which sounds like it could be a Cap’n Jazz lyric. It’s a slightly more laid back affair, begins with some muted guitars and a drum kit that sounds like it was played underwater. This is definitely a slower song, and I almost think it does the band more justice. I really like this album, and it’ll surely be something I will listen to during the hot Summer months.