Allister
“Last Stop Suburbia”
(Drive Thru Records)
Guitars played at high passionless velocities, boring relationship belly-aching, and stale production manifest themselves in Allister’s Last Stop Suburbia, a record where the titles change, but the songs stay the same. These are less songs than derivative regurgitations of contemporary quotidian garbage that was not all that good in the first place. Just think second string poppy punk groups like the Starting Line or Midtown.
Despite the cloying nature of the record, there are a few tracks that might appease more than your 14 year old sister. Like “Overrated,” where they mix up the standard tempo, let the melody take hold, and slap on a catchy sing-song hook to create a cut with a little shine to it. “Somewhere on Fullerton,” also stands out, as the vocals seem less bored and the ascending drumbeats add substance to the track. The rest of “Last Stop Suburbia” is the typical heard-it-once-heard-it-a-million-times type of fluff that has come to be typical of Drive-Thru releases.
For a band that originated as a school talent show act, they could have at least included a cover of “Living on a Prayer.”
