3 out of 5

Label: Island

Producer: Greig Nori

So not to discourage growth, but it’s tough trying to change things up when your defining element is a youthful snottiness.  Blink latched on to it for way too long, and though they maintained a following, they were already starting to stretch it when ‘Dude Ranch’ came out, and so the strengths of their ‘mature’ album were somewhat easy to dismiss as a bid too become relevant once more.  Sum 41 seemed legit in their rebellion, as generic as it was, because for once the high-school / parent-hatin’ brats shouting at us over three chord breakdowns actually looked like kids.  It helped that they had some surprising musical chops, allowing a love for 80s metal to dance with their pop punk tunes, encouraged by some great production from either Mr. Nori or Jerry Finn.

‘Chuck’ isn’t necessarily the grown-up album yet (that would be the following ‘Underclass Hero’), but it was absolutely a more serious one, penned after witnessing some madness in the Congo while filming something for charity and apparently having some scrapes with danger (from which they were rescued by an aid worked named Chuck, hence… yadda yadda).  Now, you don’t have to be poets or musical elitists to pull this kinda shift off: one of my favorite albums is Suicide Machines’ ‘Battle Hymns,’ which was a wicked departure in sound and theme from their previous ska/punk debut, and there’s nothing truly revolutionary in the lyrics raging against politics and pollution, but there’s an insane passion to it.  And that’s where ‘Chuck’ gets its shoelaces tied together a bit.  A couple of tracks deliver the anger or frustration Deryck Whibley apparently felt, smartly playing those metal riffs right up to the forefront and flipping Whib’s whiney sing-song into a bit more impassioned yelling.  Notably our starting songs are some of the strongest – ‘No Reason’ and ‘We’re All to Blame’ rhyme words predictably, but embellish the group’s sound with some interesting production touches and otherwise let loose.  But as Sum has grown up under a major label banner, the thought to include some standards reigns.  It’s not that these tracks are bad, they just feel restrained compared to the openers, and sucks out the energy that kicked off the disc – a component that definitely carried a listener through their first releases.

Thankfully the technical skill is still stunning at points.  ‘The Bitter End’ blitzes your ears in its last moments, and closer ’88’ has some grand sweeping moments that certainly surpass genre expectations.

It was a turning point for the band.  Fans of the fun sound of previous albums will hear some catchy tunes but probably be left a little cold by the disc’s general tone.  The effort and talent behind some of the more fully realized tracks is undeniable, though, and repeat listens to reveal that the Sum 41 vibe is still there, it just gets muted by a half-committed theme.