 EP: Home Grown – When It All Comes Down
[image=left]http://www.alternativenation.net/gallery/files/9/9/4/hg-cover.jpg[/image]Home Grown were one of the freshest and most interesting bands to come out of the explosion of pop-punk in mid-nineties Southern California. Their self-published Whassup? EP and their debut album That’s Business on Liberation Records were standouts of their genre, blending Green Day’s pop sensibility with the ska chops that were the height of surfer-chic at the time.
The years are never kind to teen-friendly bands though, and to ska/punk tunes about girls and sunshine the passage of time can be downright cruel. Home Grown have made an admirable effort to grow up without losing their sense of fun, but sadly each progressive release has proved less interesting than the last. More mature, definitely. More professional, for sure. Better written, and much more respectable, yes. But somewhere along the line, the joy has drained out of Home Grown’s music.
When It All Comes Down has six tracks of straightforward pop-punk (Home Grown dropped their ska influence by album number two). They out-play and out-class most of the younger bands on the scene by a country mile, but lyrically they’ve taken ten steps backwards. Where Home Grown’s first album gave us subject matter ranging from infatuation to insecurity, it managed to take in the employment market, the fear of ‘selling out’ and of hearing loss, tales of attempting to fit in as part of a racial minority, and the woes of dealing with sexual dysfunction. All that, and an anthem about mullets. This latest release, in contrast, goes right back to infatuation and insecurity, but fails to expand that in any direction at all. When It All Comes Down provides six tracks of “My girl left. I miss her. Girls are complicated.” Frankly, I was hoping for more, as this leaves Home Grown treading the same shallow water as a million and one younger bands.
Admittedly, Home Grown have the superior songwriting skills to keep them clear of younger rivals. Every track here is solidly structured, smoothly blending eighties-style harmonies, Californian optimism, and pure unashamed pop hooks. They are the band Busted can only ever dream of becoming, yet their paticular audience are unlikely to give middle-aged scruffy punksters like Home Grown the time of day. It’s their loss. | |
