Review by new CL Music Team Contributor Ray Roa.
They haven’t released an LP of new material since 2004’s Guilt Show, so it’s really easy to get excited about a brand full-length from The Get Up Kids. In fact, the first few sonic moments of There Are Rules are enough to make you feel like you might be able to fit into your old jeans again.
The opening bars of leadoff track “Tithe” feature the jangly riffs and motorboat drumming that fans have come to know and love. Rob Pope’s bass is as pulsating as ever and hearing Jim Suptic echo frontman Matt Pryor as he sings the chorus is as nostalgic as looking back on old yearbooks. However, what isn’t immediately noticeable is what’s changed.
Just like the wrinkles and crow’s feet that will inevitably occupy an aging face, Pryor’s voice is subtly different. Blame it on the nine albums of non-Get Up Kids material he put out over the past 10 years, but the high-pitched, emotive singer that delivered Get Up Kids staples like “Red Letter Day” and “Ann Arbor” is long gone. Sure, he still sounds just as fired up as he did on Four Minute Mile, but his angst seems to have been replaced by the quiet confidence that life will always go on, despite its pitfalls and joyous occasions, and you’ve got to grow up through it.
This article appears in Jan 20-26, 2011.