All Set - Goin' For It

I believe it would be as fair of an assertion as any to say that I'm having some sort of musical affair with the state of Massachusetts. I mean, this is my third review in two days of a band from the forgotten state, but hey, at least I think it might be my last for a while. I don't know any other bands from MA at this point, so maybe I'll get around to other parts of the country and world.

So anyfuckingway, this band All Set has gone on to prove that I'm going to be consistently more stoked with each band I hear from the whatever state. This band is way more straight forward poppy than the other two bands, and it's very obvious that they listened to The Upsides and Get Stoked On It by The Wonder Years at least 100 times each before sitting down to write this record. I mean, this is brocore. This is straight up Massachusetts brocore. Even their info on facebook makes them look like complete bros. Maybe not the kind of people I'd want to hang out with, but that's irrelevant because they make really enjoyable pop music. I mean, we're not talking about anything original here, but it definitely requires a certain amount of talent and a certain amount of ability to force people to sing along with infectious vocal melodies and awesomely structured pop punk goodness.

"Another long drive, through these city lights! We all made it here, I'm glad we took this trip tonight! And I have to say, we've seen better days! But now looking back I'd never give it all away!" Yeah, definitely listened to The Upsides while working on this record.

The recording quality is seriously solid all the way through. It sounds like a decent amount of money had to be sunken into this record, and it has to have been the right amount to have it recorded perfectly, and mixed flawlessly, and just the right amount of lack-of-money for it to not sound shitty and overproduced. They basically sound like the band All Time Low wishes they were, but accidentally overshot while aiming for the moon and ended up in a black hole, whilst All Set has set up a party base on the moon, complete with xbox and netflix. Whereas all the other moon-shooters are among the stars...other than the ones who burned up in the stratosphere (see: Saves the Day).

Hey, this album also has a poorly recorded acoustic guitar bit. Does that mean it's a real album? Maybe it's not poorly recorded, maybe it's just a shitty guitar...Thankfully it turns into a legitimate full band song halfway in, and you don't have to deal with the annoyingness for very long. The switch to electric is a bit clunky, but I suppose it works out a bit in the end. Although, it's definitely the only song I don't like on the album. Well, the bass guitar is pretty sweet on it, but that's because it's pretty sweet on all of the songs. It's not really fair to try to say a song is good just because of the bass. Well, I guess you can say that about a few songs by Rancid, or the song "Want" by Jawbreaker. That song wouldn't stand very well on its own without the badass bass intro, seriously. These songs also wouldn't survive without the awesome bass being all audible and awesome.

This band kind of reminds me of Handguns. I think I may still love Handguns a bit more. I mean, that's just the way things go. Handguns are beyond the shit. If the Handguns saw that these All Set guys had a moonbase, they'd totally fucking crash it and break their copy of Call of Duty and turn off Hey Arnold! on netflix and start watching something badass, like Californication. I don't know if Handguns are the kind of dudes to do this, but if they were, they'd totally sleep with All Set's girlfriends. It would happen. And then All Set would be back to orbiting Earth, instead of chilling on the moon. That's not to say that this 'Goin' For It' recording isn't awesome, because it is pretty rad. I mean, the fact that is reminds me of the Cincinnati band Pilot Around the Stars actually fits the whole review motif I've been centering around. See, everything happens for a reason.

-Idle

Bandcamp. Idle and the Bear's Facebook.

P.S. This album art was totally done by a kid with Photoshop. Just saying.

P.P.S. If I were to give albums ratings, I'd give it a 6/10. I said about twice as many positive things as I did negative things, which factors out to about that. It's a solid release, and gives fans a lot to look forward to with a full length release. It doesn't REALLY sound like they listened to The Upsides 100 times before writing this. They just obviously have similar influences, and you can tell a lot with the lyrical vibe and the song structure. It's a good album.