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As one of the driving forces behind the ‘emo’ revolution, The Academy Is… have garnered much attention since their debut LP ‘Almost Here’ put them on a commercial plateau for all to see. Whilst the band had success with their first project, it was in fact their follow-up smash ‘Santi’ that had fans clogging up the internet with interest and flocking, quite literally, in their thousands to buy their music. Affiliated with Fall Out Boy and The Gym Class Heroes, The Academy Is..., who originate from Chicago, are five guys out to make as much noise as they can whilst delivering a few teenage messages along the way.
“Fast Times At Barrington High” at times sounds more McFly than Green Day, but with a feel-good edge to each song there’s no mistaking this to be the work of the Chi-Town fivesome. Their trademark speed guitar playing is still as evident as ever and sounds like it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Tracks such as ‘Paper Chase’ and ‘One More Weekend’ are perfect examples of this. Accompanying this are some teenage love struck lyrics as well as some pretty speedy drum riffs. All in all it’s good to know that they haven’t attempted to change their musicality and lose sight of what put them in the spotlight in the first place.
Playing to their established fan base, ‘About A Girl’ is the perfect song to introduce the album. Complete with a hairbrush microphone, the simple words and simple production are obviously aimed at kids wanting to jump around their bedroom-turned-studio as soon as the first chord is struck. ‘His Girl Friday’ is another cut with this sentiment in mind but with a Paramore feel to it. With the main body of the song a little quieter so that the lyrics are heard with a bit more depth, the chorus still follows suit with the rest of the album – loud, loud, loud!
There’s no way you can say that these guys are the original emo/punk/rock/pop, whatever you want to label them as, band, but they’re not looking for that title anyway. They’ve constructed an album for teens to rock out to with the occasional heartfelt moment (‘The Test’ and ‘Rumored Nights’) to relate to. “Fast Times At Barrington High” is a rock ‘n’ roll soundometer with emo tendencies.
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