Still Not Getting Any…

Reviewed by:
David Peisner

In the wake of Simple Plan’s platinum-selling debut, many questioned their punk-rock bona fides. But if punk’s essential ingredient is the all-encompassing belief that the world is against you no matter the evidence to the contrary, then Simple Plan are as punk as they come. Their almost irritatingly catchy second album, Still Not Getting Any…, plays like a list of grievances. “Shut Up!” “Welcome to My Life,” and “Me Against the World” suggest the Montreal quintet have a chip on their collective shoulder the size of Saskatchewan. The earnest power ballad “Crazy” catalogs society’s ills (dysfunctional families, materialism, airbrushed magazine photos) over buzzing riffs and crashing drums. “Jump” is a bouncy call to forget your problems and, well, jump—though it’s not clear whether they’re endorsing some sort of dance-floor pogoing or leaping off the nearest high ledge. Their polished pop-punk is unlikely to quash the hate the band engenders from the teenage cred police, but that’s OK: It’ll just give them more to bitch about.

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