This pop has lost it's fizz...

Artist: Nine Black Alps
Album: Everything Is
Label: Tiny Evil/Interscope 
Tracks: 12
Length: 35:38
Review by: John Durkee

You know what it’s like when you open a new can of pop, that snap that’s made when you open it, the fizz buzzing and foaming, it’s an almost beautiful experience. You drink a swig or two, and it tastes great. Then you set it down for a little while, and you go back to whatever you were doing before.

Several hours later, you notice that same pop can, and remember how great it tasted earlier, and decide, “Hey, why not finish it?” Then you take a swig of stale, flat and lukewarm pop that is just nasty. Naturally you spit it out, out of mere disgust and you drain the pop in the kitchen sink. A valuable lesson is learned.

The pop can of pop punk fused rock was opened a little more than ten years ago. It was left for a couple years, and bands have been returning to it periodically for a while, and with each sip it seems to get worse and worse. Some bands have managed to stay “fizzy” longer than others, and some started out flat. Nine Black Alps is more in the middle between the two. They have some decent songs, and a solid sound, but you’ve tasted better. You’ve tasted a much fresher sound, and this is just flat pop.

Somehow this album has been compared to Nirvana for some odd reason. Almost nothing about this album sounds grungy and has far more in common with Green Day than it does with Nirvan. Perhaps it's the more rock vocals that Nine Black Alps employs or something, but this is certainly not the next big thing in music.

Everything Is is another example that proves that old proverb, “There’s nothing new under the sun.” It isn’t awful, and really, one could go a lot worse than Everything Is, but why settle for the mediocre?