Sum 41

Underclass Hero

[2.5/5]

It’s telling that Deryck Whibley is the only member of Sum 41 featured on the cover of the band’s fourth full-length, Underclass Hero. An aural autobiography of sorts, the album chronicles the frontman’s trials and tribulations via a series of songs that tread subject matter both predictable (the outcast anthem of the title track) and personal (“Dear Father,” an open letter to Whibley’s estranged parent). Musically, the band’s first album as a trio lacks former guitarist Dave Baksh’s technical edge, however the rest of band manage to compensate with a collection of melodic punk tracks that recall Blink-182 instead of Iron Maiden. Unfortunately, when it comes to the lyrics, Whibley’s not as successful. Sure, it’s hard to doubt the frontman’s sincerity on politically fueled tracks like “March Of The Dogs,” but it’s also hard to take someone seriously who can sing “It may be true I’m a pessimist, but I say we need an exorcist” with a straight face. Ditto for ballads like “Best Of Me,” which are so watered down they might short-out your stereo. Ultimately, Underclass Hero suffers more from arrested development than it does an identity crisis-and hopefully now that Whibley has found himself, he can go back to writing songs that don’t sound like outtakes from the last Good Charlotte album. (ISLAND) Jonah Bayer

ROCKS LIKE:
Blink 182’s Dude Ranch
Green Day’s American Idiot
Good Charlotte’s Good Morning Revival

IN-STORE SESSION WITH FRONTMAN DERYCK WHIBLEY

What’s been going on in the Sum 41 camp for the past few years?

Well, we took a really long break after Chuck-and to be honest when we got off that tour, I didn’t know if we were going to make another Sum 41 record. We didn’t want to make another record in the same way we did it before, because it just got to the point where we didn’t see the purpose. So we all decided to go to Las Vegas for the weekend and just hang out and decided that if we made another record, we were going to work harder and longer on this than we ever have before. So we all agreed to do it-and then two weeks later, Dave [Baksh] quit.

Were you bummed when Dave left the band?

Yeah, I didn’t want him to leave and I really wish he would have been into it as much as all of us were, but the reality was he wasn’t-and there’s also no way we could have made this record with Dave in the band. To be honest, the biggest surprise to us was that it took him that long to quit because we all thought he would leave when we were making our first record.

Your wife Avril Lavigne has a song on her new album called “When You’re Gone” that was directly inspired by you. Do you have any songs about her on this record?

Everything in my life that has ever happened to me is in this record. From the smallest to the biggest thing, it’s all sort of chronologically placed in the record, so everything comes out.

Is it daunting for you to make yourself so vulnerable at this point in your career?

Yeah, totally, it’s the scariest thing I’ve ever done. But the whole time I was writing this, I just kept telling myself it only feels that way because it’s the most real and the most meaningful thing I’ve ever done, too. I didn’t want to make the safe, easy record. I wanted to do something that scared the shit out of me.

So much has changed in the punk world since Chuck came out three years ago. Do you think there’s still a place for Sum 41?

I don’t really think about it like that because if you start thinking about where you’re going to fit in and who’s going to like you, you start inhibiting yourself and you won’t do what’s truly honest. If people don’t think we’re relevant anymore, than they’re entitled to that opinion-but I’d rather be a real artist then a businessman. –Jonah Bayer