GOB - How Far Shallow Takes You LP (Ruby Red Vinyl)

GOB (Vancouver, Canada) - How Far Shallow Takes You (sealed LP copy) (2023) Released by Dine Alone Records on Ruby Red vinyl.

Back in high school, this was the GOB album for many young Canadian Punk Rockers. There's a pretty wild jump in tightness from the scrappy burping and loose teen Pop-Punk of Too Late...No Friends and this one. Is it... cohesive? Not really, it whiplashes from the poppiest of Pop-Punk ("What to Do") to Melodic Hardcore and the kind of "heavy" Punk that you need to put quotes around the word heavy on.

If they weren't also singing about how driving on the Trans-Canada Hwy sucks you'd say they matured. That said, even on their Self-Titled EP, they were a band who would juxtapose very silly and more self-serious stuff. And surprisingly that stuff doesn't feel as dated as you might expect, but that juxtaposition works without feeling lopsided somehow.

I think you can draw a direct line from this album to how Sum 41 were nudging Melodic Hardcore, Metal role play and syrupy sweet Pop-Punk together on their post-All Killer No Filler albums. Not a surprise that Tom would go on to join them later on. -- Dine Alone Records – dav348