The Dangerous Summer - War Paint

While The Dangerous Summer’s 2009 debut ‘Reach For The Sun’ left a favourable impression on those whose attention was caught, the release lacked an overall impact through a lack of diversity. A solid release it may have been, but the band have closed themselves off to a repetition of this criticism with their sophomore effort ‘War Paint’.

With a simplistic and delicate approach to their melodies and instrumentation, the band compliment all aspects of their product superbly. Its predecessor fell short through much repetition in sounds and tempos, but the band have tweaked the blueprints of their previous work to adjust the key criticisms for this return.

Upbeat and catchy guitar hooks guide us easily through the tracks without a remote sense of boredom. ‘Work In Progress’ and ‘Miscommunication’ are two stand out numbers from this release, contrasting in tempo and overall vibe – the latter being much more fast paced. Following the suggestion that their debut was too similar, these two tracks confirm the band’s intention to work on the noted flaws and successfully rectify them with very different yet brilliant tracks.

‘No One’s Gonna Need You More’ is a prime specimen of the core pop-punk sound in this release, with ‘In My Room’ countering this with a more subtle, sombre idea at parts. There’s an anthemic feel throughout certain tracks, the latter section of ‘Good Things’ being a fair example. Pure and simple: they’ve added variety.

AJ Perdomo has also progressed as a lyricist and songwriter, evidently showing a relative growth in comparison to ‘Reach For The Sun’ but not so much that it seems a huge departure from what you would expect. That note could be spread across the whole record: It’s a positive progression, but without losing the band in the process.

The Dangerous Summer haven’t needlessly taken a complete one-eighty, they’ve more looked at their debut full-length and methodically sought to improve the weaker points for its follow up. While there may be moments that leave the occasional person dubious, this is a far more solid and considered release than their debut. ‘War Paint’ shows a band that can not only accept and work on reasonable criticism, but progress as musicians along the way and produce a superb, far stronger release.