This Time Next Year

A Place for You (2007)

P-Fresh

Those who know me know I am a complete and total sucker for any band playing pop-punk with major influences of melodic hardcore punk to it. I mean, there's an unbelievable amount of bands playing this style of music all over the country. Ever since Set Your Goals blew up and Lifetime came back, it seems to be more prevelant than ever. I'm not complaining, though; like I said, I love this stuff.

With This Time Next Year, I definitely like what I'm hearing. Nasally vocals simultaneously recalling Jordan Pundik of New Found Glory and Jay Littleton of Fairweather layered over simple but effective riffs make for some solid melodic, poppy hardcore. Often times the band could be compared to the Movielife (I'd imagine you gathered that from the name) or a number of the, ahem, better Drive-Thru Records acts.

However, they don't necessarily do much to deviate from that sound. While This Time Next Year serves up a promising EP with A Place for You, and it's airtight as far as musical proficiency goes, the band could stand to change things up a bit. I can't really tell you that there's one specific song sticking out to me here, because honestly, there isn't.

They're all great songs, very well-written, and very well-played. That's the problem amidst an EP with a 7-song tracklisting though -- all of these songs are good, but none of them are truly great. Do I believe that This Time Next Year are capable of writing great songs? Of course. A Place for You is only this band's second release, if you count their 2006 Demonstrations demo. I think for the band to get to the point of writing great songs, they need the healthy experience of touring, as well as fleshing their own songs out.

The problem lies in the fact that there is no deviation from the band's style. Any sort of diversity in the songs would be welcome. On a disc full of mid-tempo pop-punk songs, I'd love to hear the band venture into either far end of the spectrum, whether it be the band experimenting with Gorilla Biscuits-esque hardcore songs, or even some slow, down-tempo cuts.

This Time Next Year have gotten off to a great start with A Place for You. The band write simple, well-executed songs. I can only hope this is the band going through their growing pains, though; it will be interesting to see where they take their sound from here.