MillencolinSOS

It’s been 26 years since Sweden’s Millencolin burst onto the scene. At the time they sounded as youthful and energetic as a generation of skateboarders that adored them.

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But, just like most of those skaters who blew out their knees trying a sick heelflip down a five-stair, their enthusiasm is starting to wane. Because, in punk rock years, Millencolin are now dinosaurs. SOS–the band’s eighth full-length and first in four years–finds the band explicitly confront their age. Sour Days has the band portraying the vagaries of adult life as a bummer too severe to be mitigated by one hell of a melody, For Yesterday even includes a line in the chorus dedicating the tune ‘to all you past your prime’.

A baseball cap that served as a youthful fashion choice can now be a convenient means of covering up a hairline ravaged by recession. Why not write some punk songs about this kind of stuff?

But there’s a refreshing level of honesty at play on the record. We all get old. Now I groan getting up from the couch and a teenage nose ring didn’t make it through my 20’s. I get it. A baseball cap that served as a youthful fashion choice can now be a convenient means of covering up a hairline ravaged by recession. Why not write some punk songs about this kind of stuff?

Because Millencolin were never really standing for anything in particular, they’re the perfect charges to take on this challenge. On the record, they sound like they’re reconsidering their approach to their craft without seeming like frauds, or–like some of their more fire-brand skate punk contemporaries–sticking to an approach that has long since grown stale.

On tracks like Reach You and Let It Be they sound focussed, invigorated and locked in, creating propulsive melodies that harken back to Home From Home. So who the hell says growing old has to be a bad thing?

STANDOUT TRACKS: Reach You, Do You Want War, Carry On
STICK THIS NEXT TO: Pennywise, Your Volcom flexfit from 2001, The Dwarves