How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Why some punk-pop groups sell millions of records while others plod along in relative anonymity is one of rock’s great mysteries. New Jersey’s Bouncing Souls have the hooks, the humor, and the hormones of platinum-plated punks like Green Day and the Offspring, but they’ve been playing to basically the same hardcore cult of fans since the mid-’90s when they first signed to Epitaph. Their latest opens with a blitzkrieg of mile-a-minute punk-rock carpet bombs (“That Song,” “Private Radio”) that are appealing but hardly distinguish the Souls from a dozen other competent punk outfits. The quartet hit their stride later on though, as they give their sensitive side a thorough thrashing on “Break-Up Song,” “Late Bloomer,” and particularly the genuinely heartfelt closer, “Gone.” In the end, Summer Vacation is a good album with some undeniably great songs on it. Unfortunately for the Souls, it probably won’t change their commercial fortunes one bit.