Set Your Goals
Burning at Both Ends
Epitaph (2011)
Sounds Like: a mediocre pop-punk album from an above average band
Score: 7.5/10
Set Your Goals’ Reset and Mutiny! are an awesome pair of records, especially for a band’s first two releases. They’re energetic, catchy, and send a positive message, so it’s no surprise that the band has become so popular over the years. But when they put out their second full-length album This Will Be the Death of Us, many fans felt they had abandoned the things that had made them so popular. They cut back some of their breakdowns and began writing lyrics that were far more socially aware and less flat out fun than any previous work they had done. The band’s newest album Burning at Both Ends seems to combine the sound fans loved on Mutiny! with the growing pains of TWBTDOU, to mixed success.
The best song on Burning at Both Ends is Start the Reactor, which I first heard when I saw them on tour with Parkway Drive and The Ghost Inside. The crowd was really into it and it feels like a blast from the past with soaring vocals by both frontmen and the breakdown/sing-along combos we’ve come to know and love. Certain claims the crown for catchiest song on the record with its silky smooth chorus, and Exit Summer is an upbeat jam about the band’s rise to fame in the pop-punk landscape. It ends on a fun little breakdown and also features one of my favorite SYG lyrics (and that’s saying a lot), “Conviction came when no one else believed in us.”
Burning at Both Ends surprised me lyrically. Nothing feels recycled and the band obviously wasn’t afraid to write what they were feeling. This is especially apparent in the song Happy New Year which is about 2010 being the worst year of their lives. “I can’t help but smile when I know things can’t get worse than this,” sings Matt Wilson. Unfortunately, the vocals on this record are overly polished and that wipes away the raw emotion that should be felt in many of the songs.
Although I’ve been a fan of Set Your Goals from the very beginning, I’ve never been fully sold on their use of two singers, and Burning at Both Ends hasn’t changed my mind. Half the songs sound cohesive and have a fun and complementary back and forth between Jordan Brown and Matt Wilson, but the other half feel slightly off and a bit forced. For example, in the leadoff track Cure for Apathy, the vocals flow together seamlessly. But after listening to Unconditional, I couldn’t help but think that the song would benefit from them putting all the vocal responsibility on the shoulders of one man.
The weakest track on the album is absolutely Product of the 80’s. It’s unbearably silly and sounds like it belongs on one of those Kidz Bop compilation discs that come out every year. The album’s seventh track, The Last American Virgin, can only be described as lackluster and the finale Not as Bad ends with about 15 minutes of empty space, followed by the weirdest minute of material Set Your Goals has ever put out. Bet me. It features belching and animal noises. As the band puts it, “If you’re listening to this, you’ve obviously lost your mind.”
I liked Burning at Both Ends, but only after I let it grow on me. The nostalgic Set Your Goals fan in me wishes they’d revert to their earlier style, but that doesn’t mean this record isn’t a fun listen. Go pick up a copy and catch them on tour with New Found Glory this fall on the Pop Punk’s Not Dead tour!
-Felipe Garcia
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