Album Review: Classics Of Love- “Classics Of Love”

It’s no wonder that when people talk about punk rock, they are often thinking and referring to the hardcore movement. Throughout punk’s history, no other sub genre has identified with and fulfilled so many of the ethics behind punk rock. While many of us, myself included, are too young to be able to say with world weary gravitas, “I was there,” we can say the sound is still alive. Classics Of Love’s debut full length is the product of Jesse Michaels, the frontman of the incredibly influential Operation Ivy. On it, Michaels writes songs in a microcosm relatively safe from twenty years of musical history, as if he learned to write songs once and only once. The result is at times nostalgic, but always thrilling. This is the punk rock of yesteryear proving itself to a new generation.

As influential as hardcore is, most of its modern devotees are more concerned with cutting away at its flaws, rather than celebrating its earliest form. There’s no doubt; hardcore can be completely inaccessible to many music lovers. It’s loud, often without clear melody, and confrontational to the point of scaring off casual listeners. Classics Of Love isn’t as rigid in its rejection of melody, as many of the songs are quite tuneful, but it uses melody in a sloppier way that hearkens back to the first wave of punk. Ska also makes several appearances, perhaps to aid reviewers in their own weak but unavoidable comparisons to Operation Ivy. The ska tracks are implemented well within the album and never feel like a strong departure from form, the band’s sound is so strong and persuasive, any style changes feel less like departures and more like incorporations. Classics Of Love’s inflection is never really lost, and it could be pretty exciting to hear them pull from more music genres in the future. Besides ska, the band also gets inspired from early metal for “Moving Pictures,” which turns out to be one of the album’s stand out tracks.

The songs themselves are all good, varying from the hardcore bursts of “Stronghold” to the bouncy ska of “Bandstand.” Lyrically, Classics Of Love explore themes of empowerment and change, as the aptly titled closing track “We Need A Change” declares. Alienation is also a concern; Michaels sings about living “In the middle of a lunatic world” in “Gun Show,” possibly the catchiest song on the album. What it all adds up to is a kind of classical approach to punk rock. It’s charged with social and political criticisms and is celebratory in its righteous anger. There’s a certain catharsis that comes along with the hardcore sing-a-longs that point fingers at all of the ‘theys’ of the world. But it has to be said, with the punk lyrics of today opting for more personal and complex lyrical themes, the hardcore directness of Classics Of Love can come off as quaint.

Classics Of Love’s self-titled is sure to appeal to fans of the punk rock of yore. But for fans with more modern taste, it might be a harder pill to swallow. Fast, confrontational, and sometimes catchy; Classics Of Love doesn’t seek to be a nostalgic throwback. But to those familiar with its influences, it undeniably is. Making an 80’s hardcore album in 2012 could have been little more than a novelty, but the earnestness of the release brings no question to its authenticity. With good songwriting and venomously delivered commentary, Classics Of Love play the old sound with new vigor.