The Weekend: Friday

I have to admit that Forever the Sickest Kids are a guilty pleasure of mine; not exactly clever or original, but hey, they can write one hell of a tune However, “The Weekend: Friday” has managed to lose everything that made debut album, “Underdog Alma Mater”, enjoyable, and replaced it with just about every cliché known to man.

For an album so unashamedly poppy, the choruses for the most part lack the hooks most bands rely on to ensure they aren’t forgotten once their three minute radio spot is over. While their lyrics were never exactly challenging, they have apparently completely abandoned any attempt at appealing to anyone over the age of 13; endless repetitions of ‘I say jump and you start jumping’ may make the hordes of screaming tweenies at their gigs feel able to relate, but it just doesn’t hold up for anyone who has hit puberty. The sheer volume of online reviews written by American teenagers along the lines of ‘I’ve loved FTSK since the beginning. They really get me. <333333’ is testament to this. And although lack of substance has never been an indicator of a band doomed to fail, this album has no redeeming feature to make this lyrical ineptitude forgivable. The instrumentation is boring, predictable, and seems to want nothing more than to make as much noise as possible in the time it has; subtlety doesn’t even register. Although it pains me to say this, “The Weekend: Friday” is one of the most pointless albums I’ve ever heard, and the fact that “Saturday” and “Sunday” are still to come doesn’t even bear thinking about if this album is any indicator. It is a real shame that following such a fun and lively debut, FTSK have failed to develop, or even to maintain their original style to anywhere near their original standard. If you want to hear them do something decent, check out their debut, or their tongue-in-cheek cover of the “Men in Black” theme; avoid this at all costs.