Spotlight – Four Year Strong – Enemy of the World

The sophomore album from Four Year Strong, “Enemy of the World” is an absolute belter, placing well in my top 25 list of albums of 2010. I have recently been spinning this again though over the course of the last week, and I must admit, I seem to have underestimated its brilliance somewhat. What I mean when I say that is that I listened to it last year, loved it, and then raved about it, but then never really listened to it again in any great detail. That is an absolute crime though, and I have been making up for lost time this week. I expect that it probably got overshadowed by the tonnes of music I have also been trying to listen to since I first heard this, but that does not make it any less essential. What is clear this week is that I should have been spinning this one regularly since its release. Who knows, if I had done that, it might have been even higher in the top 25 rundown of 2010.

Fast paced and energetic, this is a killer release, from start to finish. It shows a band really coming into their own, and feeling confident in their own skin. Across the board, there are some storming tracks on Enemy of the World. Personal favourites are One Step At A Time, On A Saturday, This Body Pays The Bill$, and the title track, but that would only scratch the surface. Every track is excellent in its own right, and cannot be ignored. The two singles, It Must Really Suck To Be Four Year Strong Right Now, and Wasting Time (Eternal Summer) both sound huge, and are huge, They have really come on in leaps and bounds, and as awesome as their debut Rise Or Die Trying was, this has only compounded their distinct sound, and driven it impressively forward.

Throughout, they sound like nobody other than Four Year Strong, and pop-punks unlikeliest of heroes are on startling form, morphing into the world beating band the debut record hinted at. Sure they may never have the adulation of the female teen demographic, much like All Time Low do, but they bridge the gap between the Baltimore pin ups, and Ocala, Florida’s A Day To Remember, who have become massive in the last 12 months.

Four Year Strong could well be next, and only a fool would bet against them on this showing. They are in the form of their respective lives, have killer songs to boot across 2 sterling albums, and they are brilliant live.

The world should be theirs for the taking.