2 out of 5

Label: SBAM Records

Produced by: Ryan Vandeberghe

For Suicide Machines’ big return album, Revolution Spring, I appreciated its kind of heads-down runthrough of all the historical SM styles – pop, punk, dub, hardcore – even if it was ultimately pretty surface level. With that accomplished, though, I’m not looking for a repeat on the next release: I’d hope they’d find a more defined direction, even if it’s one I’m not a fan of, and head down that path, giving us a reason they’ve returned. If Stop This Self-Doubt is meant to preview that “direction” for a forthcoming followup album, I fear it’s indicative of a return to Spring’s well, which was, as mentioned, already essentially a return to the well.

We have three songs here, and while they do what they do pretty effectively, man, they are pretty faceless. Spring at least sounded like those classics versions of the Machines; on this EP, if I didn’t recognize Jason Navarro’s voice, they could be any given pop punk band.

Opener Never Go Quietly is incredibly cookie cutter. It’s approximately of the self-titled album vibes – pop over punk; insert some dub beats sporadically – but it lacks a hook, musically or in the chorus. Followup Thank You injects some energy as an all-out punker; the band can still bring it, for sure, but these kinds of songs work best when they’re seated amidst stronger tracks. So it’s a good’n, just, again, lacks much personality. Closer Pragmatic Blue is the most interesting, and definitely something I hope the group can flesh out more on an album, as there are a lot of notes jammed into the verses, in a kind of Discord vibe the group has never really fussed with. Navarro also trots out some quality lyrics on this one. That said, I’m not sure the group knows exactly what to do with those extra notes, and it still ends up coming across slightly undefined.

Some pop, some punk, and just the tiniest bit of spice.