Sum 41 / SBM discussion

[withchappedlips]

What I do know, is that The Starting Line created a song called "Best Of Me" and it killlllls the song by the same name on Underclass Hero. x) Now, that song is a jaaam.

I liked Underclass Hero at first but it had no lasting power with me. It was the complete opposite of SBM. With SBM I thought it was kind of weird and wasn't sure about it, but then it grew a lot on me and now I think it's one of their stronger records. Underclass Hero just doesn't bring it. It just sounds safe, because it is a safe album. It's like they had a lot to lose and they wanted to grasp onto whatever they could as long as they could without falling. SBM is more of a "fuck it, I've already lost so who cares" record. I find Underclass Hero to be a bit cheesy at times, idk... It's just not my record. It just felt soft... lack of emotion, lack of actual content... carelessness... just bleh.

I also don't know what you guys see in Deryck's lyrics... I think I've said this a billion times on here.

[Tyler.]

I like Underclass Hero, probably 3rd best behind All Killer and Half Hour of Power. Not sure if I like SBM more than it or not...March of the Dogs might just make it win.

[Jeremy Kill]

Ew, I hate how this gets brought up sometimes because I feel like I have to state my two cents and it always ends up being long-winded.

I don't really despise the lyrics, it's just that they convey no emotion whatsoever.

The lyrics are the most thought out he's ever come up with, but I agree with this statement. It's not what he says, but how he says it. It's like he sacrificed emotion for melody for the sake of pop-punk. I'm talking about more of the faster songs. With Me and Best of Me seemed to turn out emotionally believable, while others like Dear Father or Underclass Hero seem to lack it. Thing was, Deryck said it was an album about his life, he got married to Avril Lavigne and he still sung about not wanting to be "caught in a dead end job" (note: already 10 years after being in Sum 41). A song against the upper class? Living in Hollywood, recording in the best studios available, buying 30 guitars for one album, Deryck was the upper class. This is all behind me now, but these were my reasons that made me not believe in the songs I was listening to.

I liked Underclass Hero at first but it had no lasting power with me. It was the complete opposite of SBM. With SBM I thought it was kind of weird and wasn't sure about it, but then it grew a lot on me and now I think it's one of their stronger records. Underclass Hero just doesn't bring it. It just sounds safe, because it is a safe album. It's like they had a lot to lose and they wanted to grasp onto whatever they could as long as they could without falling. SBM is more of a "fuck it, I've already lost so who cares" record. I find Underclass Hero to be a bit cheesy at times, idk... It's just not my record. It just felt soft... lack of emotion, lack of actual content... carelessness... just bleh.

I agree with this. I listened to Underclass Hero for maybe three months before moving on. With Screaming Bloody Murder, I still play that album days at a time even after a year and a half of its release. I like how with Screaming Bloody Murder Deryck just threw out all convention. Even his singing is believable. When he screams "you can get everything you want" in Reason to Believe, I believe it. You can really sense the sarcasm in Skumfuk when he says "It's obvious you would end up this way". I love that.

All that being said, I did listen to Underclass Hero recently and I wanted to write an even longer-winded post about why I thought it wasn't that bad. In retrospect, it was a tremendous effort that had the potential to being Sum 41 back into the spotlight. I won't deny that they worked hard, albeit some simple guitar parts and boring bass lines, but each song was crafted with care. I wish it could've had better production at least. It doesn't have that big, epic sound that many songs would've benefitted from.

tl;dr - Just read it if you're bored, haha.

[fergal41]

I've been through my opinion on UH too many times to count on this forum, but I really feel it is their worst album. Unoriginal, too many songs played in the same key with the same chord progressions, over-reliance on lyrics (which weren't amazing) to carry the album. Kyle makes an excellent point about them grasping on to whatever they could without falling. I honestly think Deryck had seen Sum's position in the market at the time and decided to make an easy to listen to, American Idiot style album to catapult the band back to the top.

Luke warm would be how I'd describe it in a few words.

I will say I think the outro in Pull The Curtain with the layered vocals is absolute genius, and The Jester and Speak Of The Devil along with Walking Disaster are strong songs too.



I don't know why but I absolutely loved it that Deryck was in Canada with the guys recently. Kind of reminded me of the All Killer/Infected days for some reason. I'd love for them to write their next album together in Toronto!

[DW_60]

New interview (Tom Thacker) by Sum 41 France http://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved& ... 4270615489

[Gregorovich]

New interview (Tom Thacker) by Sum 41 France http://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved& ... 4270615489

Didn't understand much, but the stuff about the possibility of reusing old unreleased songs in the future sounded really cool. Shame it's not that likely to happen. Also interesting to note that the process of making the next album will likely be drawn out as much as SBM, because the band need to find a new label when they finish recording.

[TomiT14]

Came across with this Swedish site. If you search Sum 41, they have a few pics from 2010-2011 shows.

http://www.festivalphoto.net/search

[samueeL]

1,5 years later: Anyone notice before that Sick of Everyone riff is almost identical to Angels with Dirty Faces guitar on chorus?

[TomiT14]

1,5 years later: Anyone notice before that Sick of Everyone riff is almost identical to Angels with Dirty Faces guitar on chorus?

Yeah I noticed that too!
But I guess it's okay to reuse some stuff every now and then.

[Jeremy Kill]

1,5 years later: Anyone notice before that Sick of Everyone riff is almost identical to Angels with Dirty Faces guitar on chorus?

It was the first thing I noticed when it was featured in the studio update, haha. It's a cool riff.

[Gregorovich]

Oh my god, why have I never seen this before?

[Mitchell]

Oh my god, why have I never seen this before?

First time I saw that I almost shat myself, the movie itself was kinda mediocre though.
Fun fact: John Asher directed that movie, and one of the actresses is (now) his ex-wife (Jenny Mccarthy).

[Ardi41]

Oh my god, why have I never seen this before?

First time I saw that I almost shat myself, the movie itself was kinda mediocre though.
Fun fact: John Asher directed that movie, and one of the actresses is (now) his ex-wife (Jenny Mccarthy).

i sat through the whole damn movie because of that ... it was awful i'm still crying sometimes when i'm thinking about it.
The sums bit is pretty epic though.

[Mitchell]

There in spirit...
RT @Cone41 Playing HOB Cleveland tonite. I put Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn on the guest list-see if he shows #favoritemovie

[ÜBERCUNT]

http://www.nowtoronto.com/music/story.c ... ent=179886

Now this has GOT to be the most accurate SBM review I've ever seen.

[withchappedlips]

http://www.nowtoronto.com/music/story.c ... ent=179886

Now this has GOT to be the most accurate SBM review I've ever seen.

I can definitely see what this person is saying. I think the key difference is that I think Sum 41 has always been pretty awful lyrically, while he enjoyed their "Canadian humor" before. I think SBM is better than most reviewers think, but I also think it's too long (which I've said before), lacks direction in some songs, and oh wait, did that guy point out What Am I To Say as a bad track? Me 2 brah1!1e1one1

But really, I think some of the songs are pretty damn good. The title track is awesome, as is about half of the record. I can definitely see where people think it goes wrong, though.

[ÜBERCUNT]

http://www.nowtoronto.com/music/story.c ... ent=179886

Now this has GOT to be the most accurate SBM review I've ever seen.

I can definitely see what this person is saying. I think the key difference is that I think Sum 41 has always been pretty awful lyrically, while he enjoyed their "Canadian humor" before. I think SBM is better than most reviewers think, but I also think it's too long (which I've said before), lacks direction in some songs, and oh wait, did that guy point out What Am I To Say as a bad track? Me 2 brah1!1e1one1

But really, I think some of the songs are pretty damn good. The title track is awesome, as is about half of the record. I can definitely see where people think it goes wrong, though.

Whibley's lyrics can not be compared to greeting cards at all. They are simply straight foward, and well put. I really don't see why there's always so much knock on his lyrics. Especially in SBM, they are very emotion filled. So what if there's no symbolism and high vocabulary. It's straight foward and that's how I like his lyrics in comparison to other artists.

This review claimed that the album is full of sappy ballads and mid-tempo rockers. Anyone who listened to this album know's that is bullpoop. Crash? a metal song?....umm. no. (okok, it may have just been the working title for HIOL, but sill! it's no exception!

So far literally every SBM review has been shit. Makes me think they never even listened to the record. Someone should retrieve the one where BIME was compared to Green Day!

[Gregorovich]

http://www.nowtoronto.com/music/story.c ... ent=179886

Now this has GOT to be the most accurate SBM review I've ever seen.

I can definitely see what this person is saying. I think the key difference is that I think Sum 41 has always been pretty awful lyrically, while he enjoyed their "Canadian humor" before. I think SBM is better than most reviewers think, but I also think it's too long (which I've said before), lacks direction in some songs, and oh wait, did that guy point out What Am I To Say as a bad track? Me 2 brah1!1e1one1

But really, I think some of the songs are pretty damn good. The title track is awesome, as is about half of the record. I can definitely see where people think it goes wrong, though.

Whibley's lyrics can not be compared to greeting cards at all. They are simply straight foward, and well put. I really don't see why there's always so much knock on his lyrics. Especially in SBM, they are very emotion filled. So what if there's no symbolism and high vocabulary. It's straight foward and that's how I like his lyrics in comparison to other artists.

This review claimed that the album is full of sappy ballads and mid-tempo rockers. Anyone who listened to this album know's that is bullpoop. Crash? a metal song?....umm. no. (okok, it may have just been the working title for HIOL, but sill! it's no exception!

So far literally every SBM review has been shit. Makes me think they never even listened to the record. Someone should retrieve the one where BIME was compared to Green Day!

I agree with pretty much all of this. Whibley may not be the best lyricist, but he's a damn sight better than most artists. Lyrically, I still see Rise Against as the best rock group.

[jordidanen95]

i think deryck has great lyrics.
but noel gallagher is number 1 for me, i guess

[ÜBERCUNT]

http://www.nowtoronto.com/music/story.c ... ent=179886

Now this has GOT to be the most accurate SBM review I've ever seen.

I can definitely see what this person is saying. I think the key difference is that I think Sum 41 has always been pretty awful lyrically, while he enjoyed their "Canadian humor" before. I think SBM is better than most reviewers think, but I also think it's too long (which I've said before), lacks direction in some songs, and oh wait, did that guy point out What Am I To Say as a bad track? Me 2 brah1!1e1one1

But really, I think some of the songs are pretty damn good. The title track is awesome, as is about half of the record. I can definitely see where people think it goes wrong, though.

Whibley's lyrics can not be compared to greeting cards at all. They are simply straight foward, and well put. I really don't see why there's always so much knock on his lyrics. Especially in SBM, they are very emotion filled. So what if there's no symbolism and high vocabulary. It's straight foward and that's how I like his lyrics in comparison to other artists.

This review claimed that the album is full of sappy ballads and mid-tempo rockers. Anyone who listened to this album know's that is bullpoop. Crash? a metal song?....umm. no. (okok, it may have just been the working title for HIOL, but sill! it's no exception!

So far literally every SBM review has been shit. Makes me think they never even listened to the record. Someone should retrieve the one where BIME was compared to Green Day!

I agree with pretty much all of this. Whibley may not be the best lyricist, but he's a damn sight better than most artists. Lyrically, I still see Rise Against as the best rock group.

Rise Against lyrics could be poetry. Sum 41 lyrics? Not so much. Not saying that makes Sum 41's lyrics "bad" just different. And yes, Rise Against writes some incredibly poetic lyrics.