It seems like this week the Fuelled By Ramen are shovelling music at me faster than something that shovels things fast. The latest CD is the release from The Academy Is… with their latest long player ‘Fast Times At Barrington High’. Scoping the more sugar coated end of the emo kid spectrum this is an album about being young, being in love with girls and to be honest very little else. Expect those needling frothy white kid guitar anthems with lightly emo sneered vocals. If you’ve heard the singles ‘About A Girl’, ‘His Girl Friday’ and ‘The Test’ then this advertises exactly what you should expect from the rest of the album. Hormonally challenged teenagers will jump up and down frenetically to this while smelling rather odd and breaking out in clouds of zits. The rest of us (i.e old bastards) will potentially enjoy it in short bursts but long term exposure will be akin to pouring sugar into a tooth that has lost a filling.
Its well produced and the band are competent but the lack of variety is the one thing that puts concrete boots on this offering. While their contemporaries have grown up and moved on that is a process that still awaits The Academy Is…
Don’t write them off just yet, another album down the road might show them in more varied colours.
Fast Times At Barrington High is out now
