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Album Review: Pennywise comes off none the wiser

The more things change, the more Pennywise stays the same.

The old motto around the punk scene is, "heard one Pennywise album, you’ve heard them all." Pennywise rose to legendary status among the SoCal skate scene and shows no signs of giving in (or changing styles) with its newest record, Reason to Believe.

Behind Reason to Believe is a clever marketing ploy; the album is a free download from Myspace Records for anyone who adds "Textango" as a friend on Myspace. Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails are larger acts doing similar techniques that stir up controversy. Reason to Believe has been a huge story (and success) outside of California, as the first single "The Western World" has been played on radio stations other than Los Angeles’ KROQ.

For a free album, Reason to Believe is an improvement from 2005’s Epitaph release, The Fuse. The songs show early promise with meatier, heavier guitars, but they slowly fall into the "I’ve heard this song before" category and resemble the same-old Pennywise song. Songs such as "Nothing to Lose," "As Long as We Can," "Faith and Hope" and "Something to Live for" are constant reminders of how good Pennywise once was.

Pennywise has followed a certain formula through its nine releases as a band, namely the break-neck speed that was a part of the Epitaph/Fat Wreck Chords explosion in the mid-to-late ’90s. Albums such as the group’s 1992 self-titled debut and 1993’s Unknown Road are soundtracks to the Warped Tour generation and are staples in any fan’s skate-punk collection.

However, there is a difference between staying true to form and falling into stagnation.

Pennywise is teetering on the edge of staying stagnant. That’s not to say they should go screamo and maybe their label Epitaph would promote them and want to put out their record, but Pennywise could use some much-needed tweaking in its decade-old formula. The kids are getting suspicious; maybe that is why they wouldn’t charge money for the new record, since most already own it eight times over.

Verdict: You can’t beat a free album, even if you may have heard it before.

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