The no-frills pop-punk band Four Minute Mile formed in mid-2011 and released their first EP, Indian Summer, by the end of the same year. While their first release came out in the throes of the revival of pop-punk and was therefore somewhat lost in the torrent of all the bigger releases from the likes of The Wonder Years, Transit, and others, Four Minute Mile’s new EP took some notes from heavy-hitters like Title Fight’s Shed and The Story So Far’s Under Soil And Dirt to develop a catchier and more punk sound.
The Bridges/Streetlights opener Sunburnt displays the TF and TSSF influences. A yelling verse over off-beat power chords begin the song. Soon after, a catchy riff drops that would make even the heavy-metalheads want to dance for a little while. The lyrics aren’t too different or exciting in terms of the singing or the content: angst-ridden over a wrongly broken relationship. Sunburnt is by no means bad, but it’s been done before all the way from the lyrical content to the music itself.
Camellia follows the same suit as Sunburnt while Grey manages to stand out a little further by upping all of the new influences to make an extremely catchy song; at no point will your toes not be tapping along to the drums. There is a breakneck pace for the entire two minutes and forty-one seconds that leads to a shockingly soft ending that is both strange and a welcomed change of sound to the band. Grey turns out to be an out-of-left-field anthem from a lesser known band in a scene that’s hard to break into nowadays.
Heisenburg combines the opposite sides of Grey into one. The majority of the closing track is on the hard-hitting side, but when the song mellows out is when it shines the most: the softer side of the second verse is intriguing in hearing the power chords combat the clean guitars while the bridge slows down the pace to ease the song and EP to its end. Nevertheless, the chant of “but it’s not enough for me” can easily become the new crowd-pleaser in the same vein of TSSF’s gang vocals.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see Four Minute Mile gain a lot of steam and increase its fanbase after releasing Bridges/Streetlights. While there will be people looking for something new to come out of the ever-expanding pop-punk genre, Bridges/Streetlights will still be there to be the one-two-pop-punk that most--and younger--fans still crave.
Tracklist:
1. Sunburnt
2. Camellia
3. Grey
4. Heisenberg
Rating:
Written by Joe Wasserman
