Album Review: I Call Fives- Self-Titled

Jesse Lacey of Brand New once sang on “I Will Play My Game Beneath the Spin Light”: “I need the smell of summer, I need its noises in my ear”. Despite the fact that song was released long before New Jersey pop-punk outfit I Call Fives were even a band, as I listened to the band’s self-titled record, I Call Fives, I couldn’t help but think this album was what Lacey was singing about. Maybe I Call Fives were just giving Lacey a birthday present (Happy 34th, Jesse!), as the album is about as perfect a collection of summer anthems as you’ll hear until August 14^th, when Yellowcard unleashes Southern Air to the world.

Vocalist belts “I’m sorry you’re not sorry” calling to mind the lyrics of The Story So Far (“Fuck an apology, I’m not sorry for anything”) and the comparisons don’t really stop at the just lyrics. The high-pitched guitar lines and quick, simple punk drum beats lay the same framework for the tracks as their label-mates (both bands are signed to Pure Noise Records). The element that establishes I Call Fives is that their new vocalist Jeff Todd has a much more capable voice than TSSF’s Parker Cannon, and his wide range is definitely an asset for the band.

The hooks come early and often. This is probably the best talent, as it is not an easy task to write even one good pop-punk hook, and the band has written at least 7 or 8 great hooks on just this one album. The chorus of "Late Nights," as Todd sings “I never wanna see you again” has been stuck in my head since the first moment I heard it. The upbeat “Regrets and Setbacks” is equally great, and it features perhaps the best bridge on the entire album, with the band slowing down the tempo a bit to drive its point home. This is something I truly wish I Call Fives did more. It feels as if the band never takes their foot of the gas pedal, and the songwriting could probably benefit from having a slow jam or two per album to balance things out a bit.

Perhaps it’s ironic that I started off this review with a quote from Deja Entendu, as the album was released in 2003. One of the albums standouts, “Stuck in ‘03” evokes the spirit of that monumentus year for that scene right from the opening lines, “I was listening to Take This To Your Grave, So Long, Astoria and Nothing Gold Can Stay. You said I'm filling my head with nonsense and I'm throwing my life away,” referencing the landmark albums of Fall Out Boy, The Ataris, and New Found Glory respectively. The band uses the soundtrack of that year to transport the listener back in time to the scene they’re portraying of a rough breakup. Somehow hearing those albums referenced makes the event much more tangible. The bridge gang vocals repeating “You know you’re so wrong,” provide one of the best all-around moments on the entire album.

I already mentioned The Story So Far once in the beginning of this review. The first half of this year (with an opening slot of the Glamour Kills tour and performances on all three days of Bamboozle) provided a great amount of momentum for the California outfit. Perhaps I Call Fives’ current run on the Vans Warped Tour will do much the same for them. The band deserves to be drawing the same size crowds as the band’s they look up to and model themselves after. Though this self-titled is lacking something, IC5 has the potential to be that good.

Bottom Line: Those looking for a reinvention of the pop-punk genre along the lines of the 2011 breakout albums, Fireworks’ Gospel and The Wonder Years’ Suburbia I’ve Given You All and Now I’m Nothing, wont find what they’re looking for in this album. That’s not a sleight against I Call Fives, it’s just a statement of fact. This album is not that type of record. This is a fast-paced album of summer jams and one-liner lyrics that are sure to be posted on tumblr in varsity font. But it does all of that… really freaking well. This is a superbly executed album and one of the better releases in a so far subpar year for the pop-punk genre in comparison to last year.

Recommended if You Rock: The Story So Far’s Under Soil And Dirt, New Found Glory’s Sticks and Stones, Crucial Dudes’ 61 Penn, Set Your Goals’ Mutiny