My love affair with pop punk still exists today even after 16 or more years from when I loved bands like Blink 182 and The Descendents. I’m a sucker for songs about friends, drinking and girls. The multiple layered harmonies and those catchy guitar riffs and hooks. Sydney’s Heroes For Hire have all these and they are on show for the band’s second album Take One For The Team.
Sounding somewhere in between New Found Glory and Simple Plan the guys aren’t creating some new style of punk, but that’s not the intention. You’ve heard this done a million times and that’s the beauty of this band and this record. You know what you’re getting. And that’s not to be critical. In fact, it’s praise because sometimes it’s nice knowing what to expect.
Short, fast, direct and to the punch, this record delivers the goods. Catchy and melodic as all hell, you’ll find yourself bopping along to this even on first listen. It’s teen angst and post puberty blues and silly song titles like No Milk Will Ever Be Our Milk and That’s Not Flying, That’s Falling In Style. Plus there’s the obligatory acoustic track Keep Me Safe
Heroes For Hire are a tight unit and a well oiled machine and any other cliche you care to throw their way. But in laymen’s terms, they just simple rock. While pop punk may be a dying art and one most Australian bands chose to ignore for more substance in songwriting or for insults, it’s kind of cool to see a band like Heroes For Hire keeping the scene alive. I won’t argue that this may get on some people’s nerves, but chances are they are punk scene elitists anyway debating what’s cool by how underground and obscure they are. This is a good record full stop.
