KEY POINTS:
GOODNIGHT NURSE
Keep Me on Your Side
(Warners)
Rating: * * *
Verdict: Good, solid pop punk tracks. Again and again.
All right boys, we get it. You're a pop punk band. Your songs start off soft and melodic before you unleash a thrashing chorus. It's a proven formula. But it wouldn't kill you to mix things up once in a while.
Ironically, on the one song that really stands out - Hard to Watch You Go, about the departure of a former bandmate - Joel Little sings "You left as the final notes were played; When all that you feel gets in the way; The songs all sound the same".
The band's second studio outing, complete with two new members, isn't a bad effort.
It comprises a series of energetic, radio-friendly tracks, including the first single The Night and Jesse.
But the record has a tendency to sound a bit too similar between tracks. A succession of shouty choruses - with more shouting in the background - accompanied by rapid-fire drumming and frantic guitars with regular bouts of heavy distortion.
That said, the only real lowlight of the record is the semi-acoustic Lay With Me, riddled with the musical equivalent of soft focus shots, topped with overly literal lyrics.
As if the title of the song didn't say enough, the chorus certainly does. "Stay with me, lay with me; Let's mess up the sheets ... Leave your morals at the door."
