Album Review: Confetti On The Floor by The Apers

Few bands in the world play The Ramones style of pop punk better than Rotterdam, Holland’s The Apers. After forming in 1996 they have gone on to release six full length albums as well as a whole host of split EPs. Late last year they released their sixth album Confetti On The Floor on Monster Zero Records.

The album starts off with the song Global Holocaust. Beginning with simple guitar chords and Kevin Aper’s signature snotty vocals. The song displays everything I love about pop punk music and The Apers. It’s fast, fun and full of catchy, smart lyrics. The song builds towards a big finale with a huge thumping drum beat and the repetition of the line “They Had It Coming And They Know It.” As you might be able to guess the song is about wanting to eliminate all of the bad people in the world. The second song To The Bar For Cocktails has an explosive start with the band shouting “To The Bar For Cocktails, To The Bar For Cocktails, Fuck My Life & Fuck The World, To The Bar For Cocktails.” This in your face punk rock jam talks about going to the place where you can escape from all lives problems. Jamie Oliver was the first song to stand out on my first listen of Confetti On The Floor. It’s a fun love song where Kevin Aper sings about cooking a meal for his girl trying to follow one of the Chef Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks and how it went completely wrong. The chorus “Hey Jamie Oliver, I Did Exactly What You Wrote In Your Cook Book, But The Food Came Out Tasting Like Total Poo Poo, And Now My Girlfriends Left Me And Won’t Come Back Anymore” put a massive grin on my face. The fourth song Early Dementia has a more aggressive feel to it. The vocals are delivered with more of a punch than the opening three songs on the album and a nice little guitar solo is played towards the end of the song.

The fourth song Break Stuff is a cover of The Priceduifkes song. I think it’s quite cool that they would play one of their friend’s songs on their album. It shows a huge amount of respect towards the band. Stop It Now starts off slower than the previous songs on the album. The lyrics in this song are hilarious as Mr Aper vents his frustrations towards people and wants them to stop annoying him. Always Hate Work continues down the slower paced route. Something I like about Apers song titles, they’re never cryptic, you can always see what the song is about by reading its title. The lyrics really hit home throughout the song about hating your job and wanting to be somewhere else, having fun where the action is. The harmonies towards the end of the song are fantastic. Mozzerella No More is a short fun song that finishes just as quickly as it begins but is insanely catchy and will have you singing and dancing straight away. Totally Barzotto For You is another fast and frantic pop punk song. I’m not 100% sure what Barzotto means but I feel like this is something other than just a love song. Whatever it does me it’s another super catchy song. It’s the sort of song that will have you smiling and dancing even if you don’t really want to.

Moonlight Kisses is definitely a love song. The song features supremely sweet lyrics such as “You Found Your Way Deep Into My Heart, Each One Of Your Smiles Is A Fine Piece Of Art.” These words will get even the most angry and hard of the punks thinking of that special someone. The Apers are often compared to the legendary and very controversial Screeching Weasel. In recent years Screeching Weasel front man Ben Weasel has been in the news for various naughty deeds. The Apers wrote a song for Ben named Dear Ben which makes light of the situation. When the chorus begins I burst out laughing at the lyrics “Dear Ben, Please Don’t Hit My Girlfriend.” This song will be extremely popular at Apers shows. I loved the guitars in this song, very similar to my favourite Screeching Weasel song Hey Suburbia. Eve Of Destruction is another cover song, this time by a gentleman by the name of Barry McGuire. Having quickly researched the original, and falling in love with it I thought The Apers did an amazing job of making the song their own but still keeping the message. This is how a cover song should be, well done The Apers. Confetti On The Floor finishes with title track Confetti On The Floor. Of all the songs on this album, this is the one that really takes you on a bit of a ride. Lyrically it’s extremely relatable as Kevin Aper talks about a past life. I loved the lyrics “We Used To Roam The Streets At Night, At Refused To Walk In Line, We Never Worried About A Thing, Everything Would Turn Out Fine, The World Belong To You And Me, We Discovered Something More, But All The Dreams We’ve Had Were Confetti On The Floor.” It reminded me of a time five years ago when I found a massive group of like minded friends who I would hang out with every night, having adventures and always laughing. It was one of the best times of my life but sadly growing up has got in the way and I rarely get to have those times anymore.

In the world of modern pop punk bands such as Masked Intruder and Teenage Bottlerocket get a lot of well deserved attention for being the kings of the genre. The Apers definitely deserve to be spoken of in the same circles of those bands. Confetti On The Floor is one of the best pop punk albums I have heard in recent memory if not ever. If you like pop music or punk music you NEED to check out this record.

Stream and buy Confetti On The Floor here: https://theapers.bandcamp.com/album/confetti-on-the-floor

Now listening to Monster Love by The Evil O'Brians