Category:
Rock

Try if you like:
Fall Out Boy, Paramore, Saves The Day, Thursday

When it comes to pop-punk you really can't leave Chicago's June out of the conversation. Love them or hate them, bottom line is that they are proving to be an important element in the genre. Make It Blur is their second album for Victory records and quite an accomplishment again. I enjoyed If You Speak Any Faster but this album seems to go one step further. I would gather it is experience. June has spent the time in-between these albums touring like crazy, so experience is the result. 

Make It Blur is the epitome of pop-punk. There are the big choruses that you want to sing along with. There are the simple yet catchy guitar riffs. There is the polished production.

There are some occasions where I cringe like on "Your Shadow". There is a part in that song where the producer opts for an effect that makes me think of the crappy boy bands of the late 90's. I choose to close my eyes and pretend that it never happened. 

The rest of the album though, is quite a decent effort. Now the complaint, for almost the whole album I'm left scratching my head thinking that I'd heard these songs before. I'm not sure if it's the songs that June have written or the production that Marc McClusky has provided. Regardless, I found myself enjoying Make It Blur quite a bit. You can have Fall Out Boy and All American Rejects. I'll make mine a dose of June and call it a day.