“Like the ocean breeze you came along, to lift my sails, to take me home.”
Something tells us the pop punk demigods aren’t happy with the state of the genre today, because this year all of our favorite punk as f*ck bands are coming back our way. From Good Charlotte to American Hi-Fi to Blink 182, the forefathers of this great scene are calling us home. The latest addition to the lineup is mid-2000s act Hit The Lights, with their new EP Just To Get Through To You.
One of the last bands to keep the genre afloat in its purest form, Hit The Lights have been picking up the slack of a thousand hiatus-plagued pop punk bands for awhile now–not that you’d notice in their sound. JTGTTY is a collection of acoustic tracks from past albums, with ten times more ferocity than the last time around.
Hitting play on the collection pulls you instantly closer to the songs than ever before. Rather than bumping through the loudspeaker at a 5,000+ venue, the guys are sitting right in your backyard, serenading you with lines like “Drinking genesee, running from police” (Okay, maybe not serenading.) In the way nostalgia usually does, revisiting the songs seems to have amplified everything the band felt while creating them. The passion is more raw, and the emotions are more intense. Wait ’til you hear “Drop The Girl”. We dropped. To the ground. In awe.
Of course, the best way to look back at the past is to keep one foot in the future. The guys threw in one previously unreleased song, titled “Lighthouse”. It’s a little slower than you’re expecting but keeps the acoustic vibe. It’s the type of song that’ll end up as someone’s first dance or a declaration of true love from every sixteen year old with a side-fringe (either way, we’re hoping for some cool Tumblr posts).
Hit The Lights got to us by bringing together nostalgia and progress to create a one of a kind EP that’ll stick with you throughout the years. Happy tears, guys, happy tears.
Buy It, Skip It, Stream It: Stream It. Pop punk is back, kids, and this is one stop in its plan of world domination.
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