REVIEW: Between You and Me – Everything Is Temporary [2018]
Artist: Between You and Me
Album: Everything is Temporary
These days, everything can seem so…permanent. The slightest mistake, flaw or fuck up can send someone spiraling into a vicious cycle of self-doubt and despair—even over the most seemingly inconsequential of events. We’ve become conditioned to be hypersensitive to our failures, constantly comparing ourselves to an ideal that is neither real nor is it practical.
If you checked “yes” or muttered “yup” to any of the above sentiments, read on—because Everything Is Temporary is absolutely an album for you. Irreverent pop-punk with a tongue-in-cheek, heart-on-its-sleeve style, the debut album by Between You and Me is catchy, creative, fun and fast-paced, laden with angst and catchiness enough to put it in the same breakout league as peers WSTR or Neck Deep. While the band, true, are little more than another bouncy, summertime sure-fire hit take on peppy pop-punk, their energy and enthusiasm is endearing to a point of keeping the listener coming back for more time and time again.
In a country known first and foremost for heavy music (also: kangaroos, their accents, rugby, exotic and lethal animals), Between You and Me offer a different side of the island nation we all know and love as Australia. While not without a couple rambunctious and energetic segments that will have your head banging, most of Everything Is Temporary is good, clean, angst-freckled pop-punk. Drummer Jamey Bowerman works with bassist James Karagiozis to boom and bounce along, giving the band a solid foundation and full low end that adds heft and punch to even their faster-paced portions. Lead single and sing-a-long hit “Dakota” is an excellent example, as is the riveting album starter “Twice Shy.” Both of these are as quick as the energizer bunny with its ass lit ablaze, while still having a bouncy, easy-to-dive-into candor to them, thanks to the core dynamic between Bowerman’s drums and Karagiozis’ bass. Meanwhile, the slower and more nostalgic ballad “Friends From ‘96” and the diverse and immense closer (aptly serving as the album’s title track) show off the fretwork from guitarists Jai Gibson and Chris Bowerman. Where the former of the two cuts is a slower and moodier number, it isn’t without a couple rip-roaring riffs—and the latter is just a straight-up fun listen. Even the opening number shows off some pretty impressive work behind the fretboard, especially for a band built to be catchier than the clap, adding truth to the testament that there must be something in the water down in Australia, because it seems like every band is talented to a tee.
Ultimately, Between You and Me are an archetypical pop punk act—not that they could deny it, as they wear it on their collective sleeve—but it becomes abundantly obvious where their vocal element is concerned. Frontman Jake Wilson—backed by guitarists Gibson and Bowerman—makes Everything Is Temporary blissfully angsty and relatable. If the endearing video for “Dakota” didn’t make this clear, “Twice Shy” and just about every other track will. Where “Everything Is Temporary” is a little campy, lyrically, it serves as the perfect closer for the record, and, let’s be real, the genre as a whole is at its best when it’s just a little campy. Between You and Me’s soaring vocals and sing-a-long choruses, coupled with honest and tongue-in-cheek lyricism alike, makes their debut full-length record an ideal example of contemporary pop punk; neither too poppy and fluffy, nor too abrasive and wanna-be-hardcore.
Everything is Temporary boasts an important message amidst its emotional fragility and rampant catchiness. Energetic and entertaining throughout, and every inch the summertime hit that just about everyone can use this time of year, Between You and Me have come out swinging with an incredibly strong testament to a genre that gets more than its fair share of trashing. So if you want to have fun when you’re listening to something with the windows down, going too fast on a road with your friends, not knowing where you’re even going, then stop looking—because Everything is Temporary is that record.
8.5/10
For Fans Of: Handguns, Neck Deep, The Story So Far
By: Connor Welsh
