Album Review // Fireworks // Higher Lonely Power

Funeral Plant Collective

After not releasing an album in nine years, Fireworks are back. The real mystery of this album is why they thought that the opening track was a good choice. For an album filled with poppy hooks and earworms, the inauthentic screamo parody that is "God Approved Insurance Plan" makes the ensuing tracks much harder to swallow. The fact that the second and third songs "I Want to Start a Religion With You" and "Goodnight Tomb" are so incredibly catchy makes this a record worth saving. Don't be surprised to hear the latter's millennial whoop (an overdone arpeggiation worth looking up) pop up in a Nissan ad or something. This Michigan six-piece knows how to write addictive songs, pure and simple. Perfect for fans of bands like Four Year Strong or their touring partners The Wonder Years, Fireworks are able to truly put the "pop" in pop-punk (listen to "Woods II" if you have any doubt). Just reading some of the titles, it's easy to pick up that the album has an overt post-religious concept behind it. Does the theme seem a little half-cocked and misleading? Maybe. Still, it's not shocking for a band whose best album is called Gospel.