Man Overboard
Heart Attack
Reviewed by Jane Roser
“Have a smoke, take a walk, nothing’s gonna work out as easy as you thought. And it must be my fault. Sometimes when I’m drinking I spit when I talk.”
This is a sampling of some of the witty, amusing lyrics you can find on Man Overboard’s third studio album Heart Attack, released today on Rise Records.
Man Overboard, whose motto is “Defend Pop Punk” was founded by childhood friends Nik Bruzzese and Wayne Wildrik (honestly, you couldn’t make up better pop punk names than these) in the green suburbs of New Jersey in 2008. The band’s name was borrowed from the Blink-182 song of the same name and they have steadily grown an impressive following culminating with their joining of the Warped Tour line up this summer. If you happen to be one of the fans who to score a ticket to their sold out show in Philly June 2nd consider yourself a lucky duck. Like Rolling Stone tickets or Liberace’s capes, I imagine these would sell for big bucks on ebay.
Weezer and The Clash are listed as Man Overboard’s musical influences and you can certainly hear it, especially whispers of Weezer, on this album.
“White Lies” was the first single released and it is a catchy, fun, drum laden song. I had to get used to the lead singers’ style of singing, as it can come across at first as being slightly like that annoying kid who sat behind you in middle school and kept kicking the back of your desk, but it grows on you and works for the overall sound they are trying to create.
With over 95,000 Facebook fans and 43,000 Twitter followers, this band is not a one hit wonder- anyone who tweets about garden gnomes and ends their Facebook and Twitter posts with “xoxo” has my utmost respect and admiration.
Rating: Bad-ass
