One of The Netherlands’ finest embassadors of pop punk, constantly touring around the UK & rest of the world, you’ll find The Apers being name-checked alongside The Queers & Screeching Weasel by anyone worth their punk-cred salt. Descended directly from the quick-fire two-chord, one-line sing-a-long repeat lines of the Ramones and sticking right to the half-hour album ethos—“you can play the album at full volume with speakers out your window and have it finish before the cops arrive”—don’t expect anything new here. But hey, if it ain’t broke then there’s no need to fix it.
After more than ten years and five albums it’s no surprise that this time around The Apers have offered a somewhat more mature sounding album, very by-the-numbers at times and with a couple of instantly forgettable tracks along the way. They’re gone before you notice though and a new jumping chorus hook is along to keep you entertained.
Reanimate My Heart is one of the album’s epics, reaching almost three minutes fifty seconds. It slows down the pace from the rest of the album’s full frontal punk guitar onslaught, a welcome change from so many of today’s ‘punk’ emo kids idly thrumming away at guitars for no apparent reason. The aim here is clear, get off your dumb fat ass, start shaking it and jump around like a loon.
