Sum 41
Underclass Hero
4/5

Who It’s For: Green Day and Blink 182 fans
Sounds Like: Green Day’s American Idiot done in Sum 41 style


With Underclass Hero, it seems that Sum 41 have taken a page straight out of Green Day’s American Idiot playbook and applied it to this new album. For three Canadian boys, there is a whole lot of American politics here, which is disheartening because you can’t tell if it’s genuine or they are jumping on a bandwagon that has worked in the past for other people. Songs like “Underclass Hero,” “Walking Disaster” and “March Of The Dogs” feel almost too much like American Idiot’s tracks “American Idiot,” “Jesus Of Suburbia” and “Holiday.” For the band’s first album as a trio, it concerns me that they haven’t taken this line up change as an opportunity to see what new sounds they can make musically.

Once you have gotten over that this disc is fairly typical of Sum 41, you find that they stay close to what works for them and really stick to taking chances in the lyrics. Most of the record is similar sounding to a lot of the old tracks found on any one of their previous discs: kind of radio friendly, safe pop punk. The have thrown in this complete surprise of a track “Ma Poubelle” which is a French almost jazzy number which acts as the perfect intermission to get you ready for the rest.

Sum 41 really shine when doing the extremes. Heavy tracks like “March Of The Dogs” (which starts off with the seething statement Ladies and gentlemen of the underclass/The president of the United States is dead! and goes on to describe his death) and “King Of Contradiction” with it’s circle pit beat show what brought them this far and why they do belong. Underclass Hero also displays slower more ballad-like tracks such as “With Me” And “Best Of Me” which are heartfelt without being mushy and one of which will be a great single soon enough.

In the end, Underclass Hero is not a bad album but it’s not great. It will probably be enough to satisfy fans, but it doesn’t feel real enough. I understand why they did what they did with Underclass Hero, it was time for them to make a statement, but I hope they didn’t push too much. As they are still young they have time to grow with it. Their fans are old enough now to take what they have offered with a grain of salt and chant those lyrics to high hell when they play them live. It’s great that they are pushing boundaries; I hope they use this in the future as well and expanding their musical sound as well.

Track Listing: 

1. Underclass Hero
2. Walking Disaster
3. Speak of The Devil
4. Dear Father
5. Count Your Last Blessings
6. Ma Poubelle
7. March Of The Dogs
8. The Jester
9. With Me
10. Pull The Curtain
11. King Of Contradiction
12. Best Of Me
13. Confusion And Frustration In Modern Times
14. So Long Goodbye

- Stephanie Joudrey   Posted Aug, 25/07