Album Review: Lit - "Tastes Like Gold"

 

The trouble with being a one hit (well okay, one and a half hit) wonder is that you're always going to be singing over the echoes of The Hit to those outside of your fanbase. Pop punk/glam rock veterans Lit are a case in point. I'll admit, I was a fan of theirs back in the day when they had their brief moment in the sun with My Own Worst Enemy and have listened to a few albums since, all of which have been solid and serviceable while never quite threatening to put anything else up there in your memory other than the obvious song when their name comes up.

Tastes Like Gold is another case in point. The opening one-two of lead-off single Yeah Yeah Yeah and Mouth Shut (featuring No Doubt guitarist Adrian Young) are solid slices of pop-punk which you can see keeping the band's fanbase happy but not really winning them any new converts. Let's be clear, that's not necessarily a bad thing - songs like the ode to Friday night drunken arguments with your girl and the making-up sex afterwards of Do It Again at least show a bit of A Jay Popoff and co's trademark goofy humour underneath and way with a hook even if it's nothing you won't have heard before from them. Similarly, Kicked Off The Plane could almost be My Own Worst Enemy at 30,000 feet with its tales of drunken stupidity and sunshiny chorus hook.

The Popoff brothers are on good form here with A Jay turning out some good choruses and lyrics on the likes of Get Out Of My Song and Jeremy cutting loose with the riffs well on Out Of It and the closer Let's Go (which also features Butch Walker and is probably the strongest track on here). The only downside is that Tastes Like Gold is just a very predictable album. I mean, I know there's a case for sticking to what you know if you're doing well and Lit are...well, they're not doing it badly - at its best this album is decent enough while at its worst (the dreary balladry of OK With That and the title track and the Lit-by-numbers of The Life That I Got) it's just anonymous rather than actively awful. It's just that by the second half, it becomes pretty obvious that you've pretty much seen everything it's gonna offer and you can't help but lose interest a bit.

A solid enough album then and it'll certainly keep Lit's remaining devotees happy. It's just the lack of progress and variety here that feels a bit disheartening to be honest.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑🌑 (7/10)