Simple Plan - Taking One For The Team album review

Photo from Kerrang.com

If you’re a fan of the ‘That’s Not Metal (TNM)’ podcast, then you will have likely heard the scathing review they gave this album. I say scathing, that’s the politest way I can describe the destruction they gave Simple Plans new offering! Listening to their review I was left thinking, I'm a Simple Plan fan, surely it can't be that bad?! Well, here's my view of the new album.

Now, Simple Plan are pure pop-punk, and they have been since their inception 17 years ago and that’s great as they do it well. However, there is something lacking with this album. It seems to have the pop-punk elements mixed with….well, just plain oddness! 

Opener ‘Opinion Overload’ brings the usual upbeat fast paced tune that is expected from Simple Plan, before moving into ‘Boom!’ which keeps the party going.
And then ‘Kiss Me’ comes onto the scene and sounds like, as TNM podcast put it, a One Direction revival. It does not come across well at all.
‘Farewell’ revives the album going back into the pop-punk roots until it all unravels again with the reggae like ballad of ‘Singing in the Rain’.
Hope springs as the band power through the next couple of songs with the renewed vigour of old school Simple Plan. Until they invite Nelly to collaborate on a song. Now, I am a fan of Nelly, so him and the Simple Plan guys working together sounds pretty ace to me. However, it is not. ‘I Don’t Wanna Go to Bed’ is quite simply, a train wreck that wouldn’t seem out of place at a Christmas office party. If it had been created by Maroon 5 or Mark Ronson then I would’ve understood but Simple Plan? Really?!
Moving swiftly on and the to-ing and fro-ing of the album comes around again with some classic pop-punk before the pace is slowed right down with a ballad, this is something Simple Plan like to slip at least one of onto each of their albums. ‘Perfectly Perfect’ may not have the most ingenious of titles but it suits the message of the ballad and is one style of music that Simple Plan do that I really enjoy, as long as it isn't over-cooked. 

There are two songs on this album with the word “wanna” in the title, really guys? At least the second is slightly better, if only very loosely a rock song. And we carry on to another ballad, significantly worse than the last, and seemingly a waste on the album which hasn’t boasted many upbeat cheery songs so far, as we go into the last song with hope that they have a very strong finish….

That was wishful thinking indeed as they draft in Juliet Simms to round off this album with another ballad for some reason (remember the over-cooked comment?). I do like ‘I Dream About You’ but it isn’t enough to save my opinion of this very lacklustre album from the Simple Plan guys.

Very disappointing. 

If you still wish to catch the guys on tour, they are arriving on UK shores nearer the end of March.
Who knows, maybe the new album will transfer well onto the stage.