Labels: Jump Start Records
Review by: James Commander
Lighten Up are a bunch of energetic young bucks from Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, and play melodic hardcore punk with occasional
‘whoah-oh’s and youth crew breakdowns thrown in, so you might be
expecting them to sound a little bit like their hometown heroes in
Paint It Black, Kid Dynamite, and None More Black. And you’d be
right(!); these guys are a full-on Dan Yemin-influenced unit, even
having former Paint It Black guitarist Dave Hause appear on the track
‘Boyz II Wolvez’ on here. But that’s not to say that they’re a
terrible band – as much as they wear their influences a little too
proudly on their sleeves, Lighten Up play this kind of stuff extremely
well (plus I’m a sucker for this shit), with every second of this
record (bar the needlessly lethargic jam at the end of ‘Personality
Implants’) played at breakneck speed with some nice riffs, great
vocals, and also a few good non-cheesy mosh moments thrown in, too.
The lyrics provide a nice counterpoint to the sometimes
overbearingly-positive messages that some of their contemporaries
provide as well, with vocalist Roger proving quite the pissed off,
cynical frontman. Overall then, a great melodic punk record that fans
of this stuff will lap up, and a decent debut for the band.