For whatever reason, I always thought Slick Shoes was a typical post-Blink 182 pop punk clone. Not that I had any actual reasons or justification to hold that opinion, nor do I think I'd heard many of their songs prior to now, but that was the vibe I picked up on. From the first track on "Far From Nowhere" Slick Shoes proves they're a band with a lot more going for them than I had assumed.

While you can still hear the occasional overtly pop elements on this record, Slick Shoes do a fairly admirable job at defining themselves as a fast, tight melodic punk band. The 12 songs that make up this album are well written and always seem to redeem each poppy vocal moment with some charging rock'n'roll guitar work. Such is the case in "Always There," "Darko" and several other tracks. With that in mind, the guitars totally save this album. The crisp production and the revved up playing give "Far From Nowhere" the sound of a good rock record rather than an overly polished new-school punk effort.

This all cumulates in the track "Hope Against Hope," which slays.

Due to their former label Slick Shoes is living with the stigma of being a Christian band. While I tend to find religious messages in my music rather alienating, there's very little (if anything) on this record that does this. For all intents and purposes, "Far From Nowhere" is a secular album. Ryan Kepke's lyrics are both positive and personal, but written in a way that doesn't preach at all.

This normally isn't my preferred style, but I can't deny that Slick Shoes are very good at what they do. Fans of fast, "new school" skatepunk (with some choice guitar solos) should check this out.