Light Years is a band that screams potential. Pop-punk is now well established as a genre to be reckoned with in its apparent renaissance, yet Light Years hardly tread new ground for it with the band’s debut record I Won’t Hold This Against You. Nevertheless, this could not be better for the genre or the band itself. Light Years have picked up the flag for the less experimental and more tried-and-true echelon of pop-punk, and the genre could not have a better leader from what this record shows.
“Uphill Battles” sets the pace for the record. Fast guitars, rhythm changes, an unexpected, awesome solo and the refrain “There’s a fire in my chest / It’s burnin’ me / and I don’t wanna put it out” reveal that Light Years know how to write a damn good song. But when the song shifts from one tone to another at about three-fourths through, the tune becomes great. “Can you see my battle scars? / They’re covering my heart” leads a coda to end the first track of the album, revealing that the remaining thirty-five minutes of the record are going to be honest and painful, but all for the better of both the narrator and the listener.
“Hindsight” touches on mortality in an almost ballad, half-acoustic three minutes and change. The lyrics might be somewhat lacking now and then (“And to be honest, / happiness is hard to find. / But you always told me / that you wanted me to try”) but are made up for by the heartbreakingly beautiful chorus: “I run my hand across my father’s grave / and I realize we all end the same. / So why am I so afraid / to take a chance and a risk before it all gets swept away?”. Even stripped down, to an extent, Light Years have the ability to compose something that hits home.
The eponymous, mid-tempo closing track wears its numb and guilty heart on its sleeve in front of a massive wall of guitar—much to its and the album’s credit: “But it’s all the same to me; / where the hell did I go wrong? / And it’s all a game to me, / but the past is the past and I can’t seem to let it be". Over the mantra “I won’t hold this against you,” Light Years leads its debut record off into the wild unknown of the future without the ball and chain of resentment on its leg, a stand-out (and stand-up) way to end the album.
There are a few bumps in the road that is I Won’t Hold This Against You. The songs start to meld together during the first half of the record due to similar sounds, but they’re not bad tracks by any means; they’re just the deeper cuts off the record waiting to rival the ringing in your ears.
Everything’s there: the hooks, the crunchy guitars, the epic choruses, the relatable lyrics. The replay value is high with this one, considering it’s a more mature record for the genre. Light Years now stand where The Story So Far did two years ago with Under Soil And Dirt: leading the charge and on the precipice of something great. I Won’t Hold This Against You isn’t a perfect album, but it’s an amazing debut that shows that Light Years is not a flash in the pan but rather an ember ready to set the scene aflame.
Tracklist:
1. Uphill Battles
2. Parking Lots
3. Nice To Know You
4. Put Myself Together
5. Throwing My Life
6. Deadlines
7. Ringing In My Ears
8. Hindsight
9. Us Vs. Them
10. Float
11. The War Inside My Head
12. I Won't Hold This Against You
RIYL: Pop-punk, The Story So Far, The Wonder Years
Rating:
Written by Joe Wasserman
