Having a three year interval between the release of their debut album, Four Year Strong return on March 9th with Enemy of the World, their major label debut on Decaydance/Warner Bros Records. Rise or Die Trying, the bands’ breakout debut, showcased their uncanny ability to write insanely catchy pop-punk with passion and emotion. Their live shows put them in a league of their own and helped them capitalize and stand out in a genre that easily gets over-populated with mediocre bands.
Enemy of the World kicks off with “It Must Really Suck To Be Four Year Strong Right Now” which sets the tone right out the gate by providing your ears with one of the catchiest choruses on the entire album. The second track “On A Saturday” is the first real anthemic track on the album which is full on anthems. Full of whoas, dueling guitars, and lyrics which are positive and will hit home immensely with their audiences. Follow up the second song with what is the best song on the album “Wasting Time (Eternal Summer)” is on another level than the others with it’s head bopping beats and a perfect melody. Other notable songs such as “What The Hell Is A Gigawatt” roars up and delivers a fast paced punk rock song which incorporates in a synthesizer, “I’m not gonna make it/tonight’s not good for me it’s true/but not for the reasons you might think/cause i got better things to do.” “One Step At A Time” is insanely uplifting and positive song about moving on from a tragic event and will be the one song on the album every person will be able to identify with “One step at a time/one day or another/one foot in front of the other/I’m going to get through this one way or another… breathe in breathe out it’ll be okay/be strong, hold on, make it through the day.” The remainder of the songs seem to fall into the same mold as a lot of pop-punk bands, there isn’t a lot of diversity. Not enough for each song to be able to stand out from one another. The good songs are very good but a lot of the songs just to fall into their own mediocrity. The good songs are the ones they’ve put on their myspace, there’s some other above average ones which I have highlighted but as a whole the album doesn’t seem to hold the same merit as it’s predecessor Rise Or Die Trying but will still please most fans of pop-punk who are used to the same formula over and over again.
Having high expectations for this record I have to say that after a handful of listens I feel a bit left down. I really wanted to love this album with all the hype surrounding it but there just isn’t enough substance, only time will tell if it will still be in my mind when the end of the year comes. One highlight is definitely the album artwork which is amazing and comical. A little side trivia note is much like one of their influences New Found Glory they once were called A Four Year Strong. Definitely give this a listen when you get the chance, but don’t expect a ton of colossal songs that live up to all the hype this has been receiving.
3.5 / 5
-Aaron Yarborough
