Losin' It - Say Something (Cover Artwork)
Staff Review

Losin' It

Say Something (2011)

self-released


I like to consider myself a free spirit, throwing caution and pee to the wind but sometimes I actually like getting told what to do. Call it my inner bdsm desires or whatever you want but it feels good. I don't think there would be much of a space for Youth Crew, with it's machismo and moralizing, in punk and hardcore if people on some level didn't like getting told what to do every once in a while. However, sometimes you just don't feel like busting out those same Youth Of Today, Judge and Chain Of Strength records. The fact of the matter is there isn't exactly a glut of of Youth Crew records being produced today and that's where Losin' It have a place. Say Something is the Florida band's second EP of the year and it delivers everything one might expect from a Youth Crew record.

There is a certain chuckle at listening to an album that opens up with a song espousing the virtues of using one's mind when everything on it seems like a facsimile of something else. Still, it is hard not to get a guilty rush when the vocalist yells "Bust it!". The title track emphasizes how songs should kick something that means something but overall the lyrics on this EP kind of talk about what people should be doing in pretty vague ways a lot more than conveying anything very meaningful.

The EP ends with a cover, Floorpunch's "Holding On," and I think it is a bit of a mistake for Losin' It to go out like that. It is faithful to the original but lacks some of the grit that Floorpunch's recording had as the whole EP has a well produced if a bit mechanical sound. It is virtually indistinguishable from the rest of the EP and fits right in, except the guitar parts are a little better than anything Losin' It comes up with on Say Something.

While the album does undoubtedly hold a few guilty pleasures in it, it lacks any sense of original voice. Maybe if Losin' It continues working it they can step out of the confines of their genre or just develop as songwriters but until then I can't see anyone but hardcore Youth Crew enthusiasts digging on Say Something all that hard.