The Flatliners, The Great Awake

The Flatliners are a Canadian group that plays ’80s-style punk, with some hardcore and reggae thrown in to change things up and the singer using that standard punk-style shout. They try to write big catchy melodies, but they fail more than they succeed, unfortunately. Though many excellent bands have come from Canada recently, this band’s not one of them.

They’re excellent, in fact, at inserting irritating moments into otherwise unremarkable songs. The first song, “July! August! Reno!,” gives you the first clue during the bridge part — all of a sudden you think somebody switched the station to the power-ballad station. “This Respirator” has a verse that’s again okay, but the bridge takes the song to places it doesn’t deserve. The chorus on “Hal Johnson Smokes Cigarettes” is merely banal, but the bridge takes off on this overdone break section that shows off their technique but not their taste.

A couple of the songs here are truly bad. “Mastering the World’s Smallest Violin” is a slow, reggae-style ballad with one of the cheesiest melodies ever; it sounds suspiciously like some terrible ’80s anthem I’m better off not remembering. And clichéd lyrics about being heartbroken: “I’ve never been this cold / I’ve never felt this way before.” Try again, guys. And anyway, don’t tell me you’ve never been that cold — you live in freaking Canada! “And The World Files for Chapter 11” starts out with the chorus to charge you up, but it does the opposite. The verses have this half-time ska feel that is okay at first, but the backup vocals wreck it, and the anthemic melody of the bridge sounds even sillier on a song which isn’t really that catchy to begin with.

The band itself is tight — they’ve obviously been working hard. It’s too bad that it’s wasted on such terrible music. Although it is kind of impressive to see so many crappy moments on the same album. Maybe if they work harder, the next album will be complete crap.