In the YouTube comments section for various Set Your Goals’ live videos, ripped tracks, and music videos, the oiled scale of fanboy-ism vs. The name-leaking snobs is balanced. It is balanced because, only the greatest of misnomers and half baked sensational-isms could inspire responses numbering in the thousands. I get it, I do; I have, and continue to furiously (perhaps even smugly) orchestrate digital retorts so grand, so ego inflating, that the ensuing responses should be reduced to hysterics. Utter. Decimation. After this, I usually feel out of character, and in gross need of a fumbling first-day cashier I can be nice to. And, upon returning to the music video for the superb and titular track “This Will Be the Death of Us”, all that pervades the eyes is “this is fake hardcore!” ; “how is this ‘fake hardcore’?!” ; “!!!” ; “!!!”. These words are given the soundtrack of the song in question, and this union is confounding. Set Your Goals are having a goddamn good time, not putting effort into being oh-so-precious, and are always in the dire position of having to get their hearts out of those throats. This Will Be The Death Of Us is a hardcore album. As many hooks and adolescent hijinks are at work, the attitude expressed here is clearly more punk rock and reckless than all those cats with their enemies and their… Their fucking heart! Yeah well, this album’s got heart, album’s got enemies, album has a whole lotta.
“Gaia Bleeds Make Way For Man” damn you, you are invited to my next party. Hayley Williams‘s guest appearance on “The Few That Remain” is the finest surprise of the album. “Summer Jam” does not let you walk to it, it makes you jump in a way dictated by the Ghost of Mighty Mighty Bosstones Past. Yes, this album is poison for a reviewer, as its every insidious note defers you from being analytical, from doing anything except crack a smile and enjoying your fucking summer. Album’s a temptress. Wait, back on track, that will not happen again; the songs on this collection are a step up from Mutiny!, undergoing some serious liposuction since their 2006 debut full length. The infectiousness is back in full force, but undergone superior mutation; the pummeling chords crunch like fierce, annihilating any peripheral fuzz in favour of razor sharp hooks. Even the vocals, as comfortable and down to earth as they are, possess so much conviction and narrative fluidity. It is not a profound release, or even blah blah blah blah blah blah blah; it’s for getting caught up in. I just lost, so do not even try to fight it.
And sure, there are those who have an allergy to pop punk or even the melo-core posi of bands like Energy and Comeback Kid, but Set Your Goals is neither (the band is from the Bay Area for God’s sake.). I hear d-beats, I hear breakdowns, I hear gang vocals, but I do not feel any affiliation to any firm designation. These are tools that are used to deliver the message at full expediency. Originality and clairvoyance are lost along the way, but Set Your Goals will still be on stage, and having more fun than those staring at a blank comment box.
(7.2/10)
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