Album Review: Bridges by 7YearsBadLuck

7YearsBadLuck are a three piece punk rock band from Innsbruck, Austria comprised of Tom (vocals and drums), Giorgio (guitar and vocals) and Andi (vocals and bass). At the beginning of November 2014 they put out a brand new album named Bridges on Monster Zero Records and Disconnect Disconnect Records. This is my review of it.

Bridges begins with a song named We’re Not Getting Any. I’m sure the pervert in you, just like the pervert in me (that’s not an innuendo) would instantly assume that this song is sex related. This certainly is not the case. We’re Not Getting Any is a great opening song about not aging and not caring about it. The thumping drumbeat at the beginning really gives an sense of anticipation for whats about to happen and a fantastic way to begin the album. This is followed up in a similar fashion on the next song, All I Know. This is a nice love song about through all of life’s uncertainties one thing is for certain, he wants his girl around. It makes sense, life is always better, even when it is at its worst when you have someone you really care about with you. That special person who always makes you smile. Musically the song is played at a mid-paced tempo where other than a nice break down towards the end of the song the lyrics carry the melody brilliantly. Time Is A Thief opens with a really ear-catching bass line from Andi. The pace is picked up in this song that has a familiarity of early blink-182 to it. Time Is A Thief is about struggling to maintain a relationship over time. The lyrics are delivered in a punchy manor and give the song a great feeling of urgency. The fourth song is called Beggars And Kings. This song has a nice intro section that really builds towards a great summertime pop punk anthem. The message in the chorus is fantastically positive, telling you that no matter what kind of background you come from if your unhappy with the way life is going, it’s okay to remove that bad stuff from your life and start again.

The title track Bridges is about those horrible times when bridges are burnt by friends. The music in this song feels very sombre and downbeat. Lyrics such as “And It Felt A Lot Like Dying In A Movie, I Had Kept My Heart From Beating For A Day” give a big sense of loss. Falling Apart is a slower paced song about posers in their music scene. This pop punk song reminds me a lot of Mixtapes Hope Is For People. It’s good insanely catchy and will have you singing along with the band in no time at all. The pop punk continues with I’m Not Going To Sleep Tonight. This is a treat for fans of Ramones-core pop punk bands like Screeching Weasel or The Apers. It’s brilliantly simple like all of the best pop punk songs. The song itself is about struggling to sleep, worrying about some news. The lyrics “I’ll Just Have To Wait Forever And A Day, Not Knowing Is The Hardest Part, And I’m Not Gonna Sleep Tonight Again” really hit the nail on the head. The halfway point of Bridges is reached with the song Waiting. At only 59 seconds long it’s the shortest on the album and feels more like a bit of an interlude than a proper song.

Live Today kicks the second half of the album off in some style. This is more perfect summertime pop punk complete with Ben Weasel-esque snotty vocals. I really enjoyed the positivity in this song about living for the moment. The lyrics towards the end of the song talk about not doing the things you love because you’re too concerned about your “grown up” responsibilities and if you do that you’re missing out on living your life the best way you can. The Only One For Me is another fun song about girls. More summertime pop punk The Queers would be super proud of with some really sweet lyrics. I love the lyrics “Still You Got The Looks, The Smile, You Laugh At My Stupid Jokes.” Lyrics I really relate to. The summertime fun is gone on the following song I Don’t Like Cats and is replaces with some fast and furious skate punk. The subject material isn’t particularly serious but will get a great reaction played live, expect some great mosh pits to break out during this song. 100 Different Places sees 7YearsBadLuck venture into a more mature melodic punk sound. This song feels more reigned in than others on the album giving the band a good platform to put the message of the song across.

Birthdays is one of the stand out songs on Bridges for me. I loved how it switches from the controlled verses to the upbeat breeziness of the choruses. The song is about remembering all of the best times of your youth and realising how much has changed as you have gotten older. The intro for Far Away is fantastic, with the bass line really standing out. The song is about falling out of touch with friends and even when you want to speak to them it’s hard to pick up the phone. The second verse is especially relatable – “I Really have No Explanation, You Know To Well That It’s Way Easier To Run, The Party’s Over, Words Have Lost Their Meaning, And After All We Had A Good Run You And I.” Everybody has a friend who doesn’t live especially close and it is hard to remain a close relationship because of that. The penultimate song on Bridges is called Out Of Focus. This song never really picks up any momentum for me, it felt like it was building towards something huge but sadly it never really materialised. The album finishes with I Still Know, a song that makes sure the Bridges ends on a high. This song tells a story about maturing, and it actually being cool. I’ve always gone along with the life mantra that “growing up is for quitters.” This song sets a new light on that theory, it says that you can do all the mature grown up things, like hoovering, having nice clean clothes and not sleeping in past nine and still do all of the adolescent stuff that you love. It sounds like it’s actually okay to grow old. Who knew?

My first thoughts when I saw that Bridges contained sixteen songs I worried that it a lot of the songs would feel like filler, it’s so rare for a band to put out an album with so many songs on these days. This happily wasn’t the case on this album, noly one song out of the sixteen I would say was close to feeling like filler and that was a fine song, surrounded by excellent ones. 7YearsBadLuck have put out a fantastic varied album of punk rock. Highly recommended.  

Stream and buy Bridges here: https://7yearsbadluck.bandcamp.com/album/bridges-lp-cd-2014

Buy a physical copy of Bridges here: http://disconnectdisconnectrecords.bigcartel.com/