Album Review by Bradley Christensen
Settle Your Scores – Better Luck Tomorrow
Record Label: SharpTone Records
Release Date: April 13 2018
Settle Your Scores released their debut album, The Wilderness, two years ago, and it was one of my favorite albums of the year. I forget where I put it on my yearend list, but it was on there somewhere, anyway. I had just gotten into easycore, which is the style of pop-punk that takes metalcore breakdowns and harsh vocals and combines it with pop-punk hooks, instrumentation, and lyrics. There’s a booming easycore scene in the underground, and honestly, 2016 was a treasure trove for bands and albums. Bands like Abandoned By Bears, Wired For Havoc, Settle Your Scores, and tons more bands released albums that kicked a lot of ass. As much as I loved The Wilderness, though, its biggest issue was the same one that plagued a lot of bands – it was too generic. I mean, it was really damn good, and I loved every single aspect of it, but it didn’t quite do anything that other bands hadn’t done already, or that weren’t already doing at the same time. What made it stand, though, was how catchy the songs were, how great the vocals were (both singing and screaming), how relatable and personal the lyrics were, as well as how well-written the songs themselves were. They had some great songwriting chops, and I was really curious to how the follow-up would be. The last year, give or take, a lot of easycore bands have been getting signed. Victory Records and SharpTone are the two labels in particular that have been signing these bands. I mean, Victory Records has For The Win, Carousel Kings, and We Were Sharks, whereas SharpTone has Across The Atlantic, Sink The Ship, and Settle Your Scores. I feel like easycore has a shot now, but I listened to the lead single from Settle Your Scores’ sophomore album, as well as label debut, Better Luck Tomorrow. The song was called “Keep Your Chin Up And Your Expectations Down,” and it was a cool song, but it caught me off guard, because the song was more of a straightforward pop-punk track.
I was a bit worried that they would have stripped away the easycore elements of their sound, and became a pop-punk band, which wouldn’t necessarily have totally bothered me, because the song itself was great. The songwriting is still top notch, whether it was for the very pronounced guitar riffs in the track, how catchy it was, or how much vocalist Christian Fisher has improved over the last couple of years. The lyrics were great, too, and it’s not like the band lost their talent, or anything like that, but I was wondering if the whole album would have this very straightforward pop-punk sound that’s still done incredibly well, so I’d be on board, regardless. What’s interesting about this album is that it still caught me off guard, but they didn’t water their sound down whatsoever. What they did instead is make a very diverse, unique, interesting, and well-done easycore album that also has elements of pop-punk and pop-rock. One thing I complain about a lot, or at least I feel like I do, is how repetitive a lot of bands and albums can be, especially in pop-punk / easycore. Every song on a lot of albums tends to sound the same, minus the token acoustic track that appears at the end. This album has it, too, but I’ll be damned if it’s not one of the best acoustic songs I’ve ever heard. If you couldn’t tell, I love Better Luck Tomorrow, and it’s one of the best albums of the year, if not the best, honestly. I’m that into it, folks. It’s an album that doesn’t surprise, only because Settle Your Scores already had a lot of potential with their debut record, but at the same time, I’m shocked that their sophomore album is this advanced and great. There’s a lot to really get into here, and what’s great is that everything has improved tenfold, but it’s not like every element on The Wilderness necessarily needed to improve big time.
The biggest improvements are easily in the forms of Fisher’s vocals and the instrumentation / overall sound. Fisher was a great vocalist on the debut record, and I loved his vocals a lot. He’s one of my favorite easycore vocalists, but hearing him throughout this record, his voice has ultimately shed that “rough” sound that his voice admittedly had a bit on The Wilderness. His voice on this album is very smooth, clean, and crystal clear. It was that way on The Wilderness, don’t get me wrong, but all the rough patches have been smoothed over, if you will. His way around a hook is impeccable, and almost every song on this album (minus a brief instrumental track that appears towards the end of the album) has a massive hook that will get stuck in your head at some point. I have to give credit to songwriter / guitarist / vocalist Ricky Uhlenbrock. If I’m not mistaken, Uhlenbrock writes pretty much all the music, and similar to a lot of other bands, the rest of the members simply perform it. I think that was the case on the debut album, and it might be the case here, too, but the songwriting on this album is masterful. This band not only knows their way around a hook, like I said, but the guitarwork is utterly fantastic, and their way of balancing the heavier moments with the catchier moments is insanely brilliant. It’s due in part of the guitarwork on the album, and how seamless these riffs weave in and out of different sounds, but I love how they get the balance of easycore down right. What’s cool, too, is the album switches things up. Some tracks are more pop-punk-focused, and you don’t really hear screaming (you might hear a breakdown or two, but that’s about it), but a few songs on here have more of a metalcore-leaning sound to them. You have the token acoustic song at the end, like I mentioned, but even that song has very intricate guitarwork and songwriting to it, so it’s not just your average or generic token acoustic track.
The last thing that I need to mention is the lyrics, and I’ve always loved the lyrical ability of this band, but this album is no exception. Settle Your Scores have always had a great way of being personal and relatable with their lyrics, as well as being mature with them, too. Songs like “Stuck In The Suburbs,” “On The Count Of Three,” “Zero Hour,” and “My Reason To Come Back Home,” as well as many more, are fantastic songs that have very interesting messages behind them. Hell, they don’t necessarily tackle new ideas, or things that other bands haven’t talked about before, but the way they talk about it is great. I mean, look at the song, “Stuck In The Suburbs,” and it’s unfortunately not about the plot of the Disney Channel Original Movie of the same name from 2004, but it’s about the idea of feeling like you’re stuck in the same place, while everyone else is up to bigger and better things. The idea itself isn’t necessarily new, but the way they approach is refreshing, interesting, and well-done, so I have to give them credit for it. Honestly, the whole album is just that – refreshing, interesting, and well-done. This album is very diverse, too, and it’s not every day that happens with an easycore / pop-punk album. This album is very much worth listening to, even though easycore is oddly more of a niche thing, despite how a lot of pop-punk fans also listen to metalcore. Do they not want them put together? I don’t know, but this album is absolutely wonderful. Better Luck Tomorrow is one of those albums you don’t want to sleep on if you’re a fan of this type of stuff. Easycore fans already know about this band, but I feel like this band could get huge in the pop-punk scene, especially since they’re signed now. I’ve been looking forward to this for the last two years, and it was all I wanted, plus a hell of a lot more, which is always the best feeling, honestly. It’s great when a band puts out a great album, and just when you’re not sure they can top it, they do it, anyway.
