Now, powerpop is a term I’m not yet familiar with. I assume you’ve all heard of The Devin Townsend Band which is sometimes described as ‘popmetal’ but that’s a completely different thing from Hard Ons.

 

On this disc we listen to pop music, but then in the way a group of musicians do it. Some tough guys would call it rock whereas others would name it even punk music. Whether that’s a good comparison or not, this band makes guitar songs with some ‘heavy riffs’ and a good sense of melody. The whole album has a little bit of everything you’d expect from a popular act, without a real ballad, which makes ‘Most People Are a Waste Of Time’ interesting more than once. Opener ‘What Would Stiv Bators Do’ is a nice faster on whereas ‘Crack’ and ‘I’m Hurt in Pain’ are a bit slower. Yet, all the songs have a catchy chorus, emphasizing the fact that the description of the music is actually well-chosen.

 

One thing that really bothered me at first were the vocals. They seemed to be a little bit uninteresting to me. There’s no real power in it, the vocal lines were a little bit easy and incomplete and I got even irritated so I could not really listen to the music. But overtime, I must say that the use of the vocals actually fits the band. It’s sure no strong punk singer or a vocalist hero like Robbie Williams but so isn't the music. And when listening closer, it all seems to work out pretty well actually, keeping in mind that you won’t have to expect a very well classified performance of complexity and original song structures.

 

Hard Ons emphasizes that making music, being in a band is mostly because they want to have fun. Maybe that’s why they decided to let ex-drummer Keish into the studio again to do some of the lead vocals. I’d say that anyone who’s into the less heavy music but with a nice sense of enthusiasm should try this once. A nice surprise in the end.