Gob - Foot In Mouth Disease

I was first introduced to Gob via their cover of “Paint It Black” which just blew me away. Sadly, that is the best song I have ever heard from the band, and despite my wishes to the contrary, they still haven’t topped it with anything on their latest release Foot In Mouth Disease. Gob has a long-standing reputation in their native Canada where they have released four independent albums, (one of which has gone gold) and toured relentlessly since their beginning days back in ’96. The band has been on several state-side tours with SUM 41, and was recently picked up by Arista records. Foot In Mouth Disease is their debut full-length on the US label, and like a lot of bands that sign to majors, their sound has gone down ever since. Gob has always been a punk band, bordering on the whole pop-punk thing, but with the release of this album it seems they threw their past aside and went straight for the pop side of things. Maybe if 50 other bands hadn’t already played out the pop-punk genre this release might not be to bad, but at this point it just seems completely unoriginal. The talent is there and the band can write good songs, as is evident by the opening track “Lemon-Aid” and even the super poppy “I Hear You Calling”, the problem is they just don’t really break any new ground with their songs. It all sounds like every other pop-punk band that radio fits in between repeats of the latest Linkin Park song and leaves you wanting a little more. Despite my distaste, at least they do manage to end the album with a good song. “Everybody’s Getting Hooked Up” is clearly one of the best songs on the album, too bad by that point the listener is already bored. I read another review where someone described Gob as “Sum 41 all grown up.” If that’s the case, I am happy to be young, because being all grown up sucks. [www.gobnet.com]