Album Review: State Champs - Living Proof

Pop punk's development is at a lull currently, where bands risk sounding too similar, struggling to step far away from what they know, and New York's State Champs are in a bit of a grey area.

Living Proof encapsulates all the fun and energy of the pop-punk genre, from intensely punchy opener Criminal to the fast-paced Something About You, full of funky basslines and raspy vocals.

As the album navigates the typical pop-punk blues of love and loss, highlights include single Dead And Gone and the passive-aggressive Mine Is Gold ("Your heart is black/And mine is gold"), which brings fire and grunt, and allows Derek DiScanio's gritty vocals to shine with force. Power ballads Our Time To Go and Time Machine demonstrate the band's ability to do both punchy energetic and soft emotional tones with equal intensity and passion, yet the cliched melodic progression is safe and doesn't reach the artistic potential it could have.

All in all, Living Proof is an upbeat, fun album full of poppy melodies and heavy riffs, and with its catchy anthemic choruses it's hard to fight the urge to dance along.