At the outset, I genuinely don’t know what to make of O, the new offering from So-Cal punk rockers Zebrahead. Formed in 1996, the band are celebrating thirty years of being on the scene and it says much of their genre-hopping approach that they have variously been described as pop-punk, rap rock, rapcore, ska, and even nu metal. Nevertheless, it’s not so much the mercurial approach to genres that makes O seem somewhat schizophrenic as the production, which finds the band crawling down a similar everything-and-the-kitchen-sink rabbit hole to The Offspring and with similarly mixed results.
As a case in point, Burn Burn Burn is so polished it comes off as sounding remarkably like Fever 333, from the lyrical concept to the rap-infused vocals and ultra-clean chorus. Does that make it bad? Well, no, not really. But it does feel like the band are chasing an overly processed sound that, for all the musical dexterity demonstrated in the break, just feels like an overt attempt to latch onto the mainstream. As if to emphasise this point, A Perfect Life Is Such A Bore is a much better track, mixing up harder edged rap, So-Cal punk, and hard-hitting lyrics with a deft skill that leaves you wondering if the opening track was tacked onto the release by mistake. Still heavily produced, it nevertheless has a more organic feel and it’s all the more engaging as a result.
The band change tack once again with I Know What You Did Last Summer, which splits the difference, pairing a tough hip hop verse with the heavily autotuned clean vocals of the opening track and a splenetic break down that is just begging to be let loose on the mosh pit. It’s a solid track, somewhat reminiscent of Dinosaur Pile Up’s recent effort, but you can’t help but wish the band would lay off the studio magic and just let rip. Fortunately, the brass-infused ska rock of Smoke Signals From My Couch does just that, and for three glorious minutes you’re transported back to endless summers spent playing Tony Hawks and jamming to a soundtrack that included the likes of Goldfinger, Bad Religion, Lagwagon, and Millencolin. It’s a great track and it connects in a way that Burn Burn Burn simply can’t. Similarly Happy Endings At The Movies is a cracking pop-punk track with a hook-laden riff, solid vocals, and nostalgic lyrics. It still errs on the side of clinical, but the band’s natural vigour sees it through.
It leaves I Don’t Know How To Put This to bring the EP to a close with a straight-up pop-punk banger that has all the grit and energy that we’ve come to expect from a Zebrahead live show and, with the band finally let off the leash, it’s a stabbing, vital track that suggests they really did save the best for last.
While you have to admire Zebrahead for trying their hand at something new, O is an EP that damn near derails itself. Frustratingly, it’s not the songwriting that’s the problem but the over-plumbed production that threatens (most obviously on both Burn Burn Burn and I Know What You Did Last Summer) to polish the band into radio-friendly obscurity. The fact that they lead with the most egregious example makes it all the worse. However, make it past that and the EP offers some cracking, memorable songs that are going to decimate the pit. 7/10
