Small Steps Breakthroughs/Breakdowns LP
Cookie-cutter pop punk out of Kentucky. Reminiscent of DIGGER, GAMEFACE, and early ATARIS, but lacking a lot of the charm those bands had. Very lukewarm lyrics that range from the utmost corny (“I’ll learn to take long walks with you / As I forever stand beside you,” as heard in “Rome is Where the Heart Is”), to straight-up tired cliches (“I was born at night / But not born last night” from the track “Three Button Sweater”). The lyrics are probably what kills the band the most for me. The music is actually pretty decent. Catchy at points, sentimental at others. Production is great and everything is very clean and mixed well. But with songs like the ironically titled “Skip This Song,” in which the singer laments about playing a poorly attended show in a wishy-washy scene, these guys make it hard to like them. We’ve all played bad shows, man. It happens. This just comes off sounding more entitled than anything. SMALL STEPS could be a great band if they took a little more time on the writing process. I look forward to seeing what they come up with down the road.