Courtesy Drop - Demo - Download (2011)

Labels: self released
Review by: David Giles

Recently a girl got me listening to New Found Glory’s self titled. I went skating with it on a few times and realised that I liked it more than just as “˜summer “˜00 nostalgia’. Now, I realise that by saying this I’m aligning myself with a Spanish Armada of squealing puppy-fat-ridden kids who didn’t have the good sense to get into Metallica when they were still young enough to turn their life around, and who are now set on a one way road to being 22, daft and covered in legit shockingly bad tattoos, but fuck it: I like New Found Glory. Recently they’ve served as a gateway band for me to start listening to other pop punk bands (I genuinely can’t believe I’m writing this) that I wouldn’t have dreamed of giving the time of day to.

Courtesy Drop are one of a handful of bands whose demos I’ve checked out recently. Now, it doesn’t really sound anything like New Found Glory but its pleasant enough. I think the strongest part of this is the sort of raw edge to the recording that has a nice basement-y feel to it. The problem I have with this band, that a lot of people on the c-z unfortunately won’t, is that I feel it goes too close to “˜gruff’ territory at times for my liking. That fucking raspy voice kicks in every now and again and I ask myself what the fuck I’m doing with my life. Also, there were one or two moments on the demo where I cringed a little – “œMaybe our love was too free” (I’ll probably never be able to be that guy), and one or two bits where I would maybe have had less of the instrumental before the kick in (track three). I don’t think any of that was enough to put me off totally though. Overall: not necessarily a fan but I do think some c-z folk could be into this. It’s definitely not vile as I once would’ve argued all pop punk bands are and I’m not total turned off although I probably will keep on looking for my pop punk fix (I genuinely can’t believe I’m writing this). It can be nice to try new things although I’ll maybe try to wait until my palette is a little more sophisticated before I get back on the pop review train.

Note: while digging through pop punk demos prior to this review, I stapled seven shades of living shit out of my hand in a rage blackout brought on by a ska riff.