The Flatliners - TheGreat Awake

Thu 11th Oct, 2007 in Music Reviews

If you like your punk rock flat out and raw then pay attention. These guys could well be your new favourite band.

The Flatliners are a four piece hailing from Toronto, Canada, and they’re one of the few exceptions to the rule that Candian music sucks. Recently they were signed by the folk over at Fat Wreck to release their second full-length album, The Great Awake. If you wanted a comparison, think along the lines of Against Me! but with a little more balls and grittier vocals.

What’s even surprising is that, for a band whose members have an average age of 19, they sound much more mature and like a well seasoned band. Twelve tracks of thought-provoking punk rock without taking itself too seriously, the disc feels way too short at 38 minutes in length

It seems that the community is divided on this release. Some absolutely love it, whilst older fans say this is one of the most disappointing releases of the year. Their old style was apparently a fusion of punk and reggae giving off an aggressive ska feel, whilst this effort is more about – œstandard’ punk rock.

The band do occasionally head into their older territory, on songs like This Respirator and Mastering The World’s Smallest Violin that stick out from the rest. The former is rather forgettable and could well have been left off the album altogether, the latter a softer number with acoustics, providing a fitting break up from the other, more explosive tracks.

Listening to The Great Awake you get the vibe that this album was written to be played live. It translates exceptionally well to record, but with plenty of pit-chorus and bar-room sing along parts you could picture this going off in a sweaty little club with just a couple hundred punters all shouting their lungs along.

There are no real central themes on which the lyrics tend to lie. Most skip the specifics and leave it up to personal interpretation, though when written from a first-person perspective it can be hard to identify with.

Another odd track is album closer, KHDTR, lasting over seven minutes in comparison to the average of just over two. Again tinged with the odd up-strum ska guitar stylings, a few horns are also thrown in (for the first and only time on the album), and surprisingly it holds attention really well. In fact, I didn’t even realize it was such a long track until someone else had brought my attention to it.

If you already knew these guys before this release then you’ll probably shocked and surprised, and perhaps even dislike it for being so different. On the other hand, if you have no previous knowledge of this band then this might just happen to become one of your favourite releases of the year. It has for me.