Various - Dangerous Intersections IV [7 inch] (Cover Artwork)
Staff Review

Various

Dangerous Intersections IV [7 inch] (2009)

Traffic Street


Here's the fourth installment of Traffic Street's Dangerous Intersections series.

Strait A's have an unfortunately juvenile pop-punk opener with "Go Away." Bassist Kat handles the lion's share of the vocal work, and while she ain't bad, the way she sings the opening line -- "things have been fucked here for awhile now" -- is so dainty it just makes the song immediately uncomfortable. The song overall seems kinda like a weaker version of what the Measure [SA] does.

Like Bats' "Sleepwalker" is my favorite of the four, even though it's kind of a derivative of a derivative since it sounds almost identical to Banner Pilot circa Pass the Poison -- even lyrically, with a central theme of yearning heartache and urban emptiness poetically running throughout. Still, this is extra-raspy pop-punk done really well and the earnestness is clear, and that makes it IV's big standout.

Rumspringer open the second half with "No Lights On," a pretty basic, mid-paced pop-punk number but with more pronounced vocals and the best hook of the whole 7" ("What the fuck were we thinking?"). It's typical, as it doesn't depart far from the whole Jonesin'/Get Bent/Mandible Records/Salinas Records/etc. sound/scene, but it's catchy nonetheless.

Barrakuda McMurder close it with yet another pop-punk track: "I Broke Up with My Girlfriend (So That I Could Write Pop Punk Songs About It)." The vocals are quick and prickly, and musically it's passable, but the lyrics are prettyyyy bad; it resembles the formulaic pop-punk songs I poorly wrote for fun in 10th grade.

This particular volume seems a little too linear and bears mixed results in the process, but overall, it's got some goods.

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Like Bats - Sleepwalker