It’s already been a month since the worldwide release of Simple Plan’s new EP – Get Your Heart On – The Second Coming!” The 7-track EP was released on December 3rd 2013 as a compilation of some of the left-over songs – in total there was about 60 songs – that were written during the process of the making of their 4th (and so far last) studio album “Get Your Heart On!” (2011).
During the month, various media outlets decided to review this EP and in order to let you know about the overall reception, I decided to go through most of the reviews that were published online and point out what the generally consensus on Simple Plan’s bridge between album 4 and 5 is.
Confront Magazine [review] – rating: 4/5
Alter The Press [review] – rating: 5/5
Pop Punk World [review] – rating: 7/10 *
Blast Out Your Stereo [review] – rating: 6/7 *
So So Active [review] – rating: 7/10
Property Of Zack [review] – rating: 3.5/5 *
Canadian Beats [review] – rating: 4.5/5
Ultimate-Guitar.com [review] – rating: 6/10
Craig’s Reviews [review] – rating: 6/10
Music Express [review] – rating: 3/5 *
Koule.cz [review] – rating: 50% [Czech]
Enemy.at [review] – rating: 3/5 [Austrian]
Aim A Trabolmeicher [review] – rating: 4/5 [Italian]
LivePhotoReports.com [review] – rating: 7/10 [Italian]
Dutch Scene [review] – rating: 5/10 [Dutch]
* – reviewer doesn’t state an exact rating, therefore the rating I chose to show is counted approximately and based upon the reviewer’s verbal rating of the EP in his/her article
Overall, Simple Plan’s EP “Get Your Heart On – The Second Coming!” has received mixed to positive reviews, reaching about 70% on average. And even though every single one of the reviews is different, there are many aspects in which the EP has received rather similar evaluation.
Let’s start with the perception of the songs chosen for the EP: in almost all the reviews (even the more negative ones), the first track – “Ordinary Life” – is being praised as the best song off the EP, reminding many of the reviewers of the band’s pop-punk roots. While the second song from the EP – “The Rest Of Us” is titled as the typical SP song because of its catchiness, two reviews (Ultimate-Guitar.com and Dutch Scene) agree that the fact that the band members are in their 30s, it reminds them of Glee – judging its (missing) authenticity. The “unauthenticity” of the Simple Plan lyrics on this EP is being mentioned by many of the reviewers, as one of the weaknesses of Simple Plan, as well as the clichés used in some of the songs. It can also be seen by the reviews of “Outta My System”, which is a song that has received the most negative reviews and comparisons to One Direction (Enemy.at), Rebecca Black (Property Of Zack) and All Time Low (Graig’s Reviews). “Fire In My Heart” hasn’t received much positive reviews either – many of the reviews see the influence of Summer Paradise, which also makes some of the other reviewers call it an “unrecognisable SP track”. The next song on the EP, “In” is another point, where reviewers started praising the EP – it is clear, that there is a certain sound that Simple Plan have created in the past, which a lot of people would like them to continue with (even though they have departed from it on the past album a bit). The two final tracks, “Lucky One” and “Try” – both slower ballads – have been perceived rather well.
Reviews are always a very subjective matter, but when put together, they can show us a more comprehensive picture of how an album, or a band is being perceived. It seems evident, that while “Get Your Heart On – The Second Coming!” brings a very diverse variety of songs (which on one hand can bring in new fans – each of them favoring a different style of music), most of the public (both reviewers and fans – from what I’ve gathered) seems to be prefering pop-punk over pop – at least when it comes to Simple Plan. Still, even though the past few paragraphs may have seemed a bit negative, the overall rating of 70% is quite an achievement for Simple Plan, who have never been critics’ favourites [go listen to “Shut Up!”]. In fact, the rating seems to be even higher than the one of their last studio album.
And what would be your evaluation of “Get Your Heart On – The Second Coming!”? What would you reproach them and what on the other hand do you think deserves a praise?
