Four Year Strong

Explains It All

[3.5/5]

The 1990s provided us with a number of triumphs: Seinfeld, the popularization of the internet and some of the most memorable, unabashedly awesome songs ever. Many of said awesome songs are collected on Explains It All, Four Year Strong’s tribute to their ’90s influences. The tracklist reads like a VH-1 “Hits of the ’90s” countdown: Third Eye Blind, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and Sugar Ray, among others. The one exception is defunct Boston hardcore band Reach The Sky; outside of that, it’s hard to imagine how most of these artists influenced FYS, except for teaching them how to craft a killer hook.



Four Year Strong stay faithful to Everclear’s “So Much For The Afterglow,” down to its sun-kissed a capella opening and Art Alexakis’ vocal inflections, while they ramp up Alanis Morrisette’s “Ironic” with FYS co-vocalists Dan O’Connor and Alan Day’s dissonant harmonies over a bed of down-tuned guitars and double-bass drum. Elsewhere, the band race through Third Eye Blind’s “Semi-Charmed Life” using O’Connor and Day’s patented mile-a-minute vocal delivery and employ Less Than Jake’s horn section for a boisterous rendition of No Doubt’s “Spiderwebs.”



The song selection is generally top notch (this is probably the first time anyone can legitimately rock out to Tal Bachman’s “She’s So High”), but Travis McCoy’s guest appearance on the forgettable “Fly,” though alluring at first, quickly digresses into a string of banal shout-outs. And come on, dudes, “Absolutely (Story Of A Girl)” was totally released in 2000. Even so, it’s easy to overlook these shortcomings when the songs are this fun. (I SURRENDER/DECAYDANCE) Evan Lucy



GO DOWNLOAD: “Semi-Charmed Life”