Review
Guff
Engine Trouble

Go Kart (2003) Sean

Guff – Engine Trouble cover artwork
Guff – Engine Trouble — Go Kart, 2003

Sometimes I really wonder about people. I turn on the television and I see rape, murder, and complete apathy towards the billions of human beings living on 40 cents a day. It's time for a change, it's time for a revolution to make everyone on Earth stop in their tracks and think about things in a brand new way, so that maybe there is hope for this world yet.

Guff bring that revolution. Forging elements of pop and punk into an exciting new genre called "pop-punk". Their palm-muted guitars, overuse of pick slides, and melancholy lyrics filled with references to failed relationships and other trials and tribulations of being a misled youth are going to forever change the shape and sound of today's music. The boys in Guff spit in the face of interesting song structure, intelligence, and good songwriting, and instead cherish a new approach to music. This approach consists of lacking a strong pop sense, completely shattering the preconceptions that a good pop song and a smart pop sense go hand in hand. "Who needs a memorable catchy tune when you can write boring ones that sound a lot like 143,774 other bands?", asks the members of Guff. Song titles like "Scars are Tough Too" and "Yesterday Seems" you know you're in for an album packed with emotion, innovation, and truly amazing songwriting. "With a terrible, or as they like to say, "unconventional", vocalist and repetitive chord progressions, Guff are sure to leave their mark on every band to follow from this day on.

Oh I feel the tides a-changin', I feel the winds a-rearrangin'. I think this "pop-punk" thing is going to be huge.

3.0 / 10Sean • February 28, 2004

Guff – Engine Trouble cover artwork
Guff – Engine Trouble — Go Kart, 2003

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