Artist: The Finale
Album: Things Can Still Get Better
Label: Blackout!/Creep
Tracks: 11
Reviewed By: Chaz

I remember when I was 15 to when I was 16, for the most part, all I listened to was pop punk. In the mix there was some hardcore and real punk bands. I was really into The Misfits at that point in my life. Well, during those two years, my cd collection was filled with bands like MxPx, The Huntingtons, Ghoti Hook, Humble Beginnings, Blink 182, Green Day, Goldfinger, The Descendants and so on. That was eight years ago and since then I have progressed and moved on from those days. Only so often will I stray back into the flock...usually it is when one of my older favorites release a good album. I never really go out of the way to find something in the pop punk genre...probably because it mostly all sucks and those bands are a dime a dozen.

When I got a list of bands I could choose from to review, I came across The Finale. I have never heard of them before but I saw they were on Blackout! Records and they have put out some of my favorites bands (Sheer Terror, Crime In Stereo, Kill Your Idols, H20 and Ensign) so I said I would take their new release. What I got compared to what I thought I was going to get was the complete opposite. The Finale is a pop punk band from central PA. This is a band of snot nosed teenagers singing about girls and I can't get enough. Every time I listen to this album I find myself as a freshman in high school or driving down the road with my friend Karl with the windows down on the first spring day blaring pop punk. This is a band that I would have found on Tooth And Nail Records back in 1996. It's weird to explain how I actually like them. I guess if you have a slew of bands that played the same genre of music and they mostly all sounded the same but then, out of no where, you find a band that has risen above the rest to put out the same sound but do a good job at it.

The recording isn't all it should be, the vocals are amazing and there isn't an amazing technical side to the music but it's just really good. I feel like John Cusack in High Fidelity when he hears the annoying skate boarding shoplifters bands for the first time. If these guys keep it up, they will be huge. Warped Tour, TRL, Huge Tours big.