Bowling for Soup

Not too many bands will stay together long enough to record their eighth album. After a while, you just look for more in the music you’re writing, right? I mean, isn’t that why Green Day’s American Idiot sounds a lot more "mature” than Nimrod? Well Texas’ power-pop-punk export Bowling for Soup really don’t want to grow up. Hell! Jared Reddick even sings it himself: "I’m pretty much the same as I was back then” in the pop culture ridicule of "High School Never Ends.” Bowling for Soup are still living in a world where they believe they’re the outcasts… News flash! Being un-cool is the new cool, guys. After all, how do you explain the mainstream carbonated pop rock hit of "1989” off 2004’s A Hangover You Don’t Deserve? Sure, Bowling for Soup are allowed to pursue this catchy simplicity because they helped invent it, but at some point it just gets old. On the positive side, there’s always a new batch of 13-year-old Simple Plan lovers to spend their parents’ cash on recycled cheese.