Album Review: Thought Beneath Film – Detours EP

Thought Beneath Film

Detours EP

What business does a band from Hamilton have working with legends like Tom Lord-Alge (Weezer, Coldplay, Blink 182) and Bob Ludwig (Green Day, Nirvana, Foo Fighters)? While abuse of wealth or connections is always a possibility; pure determination was the name of the game for  pop punk 5-piece Thought Beneath Film. These guys know what they want and how to get it; having recorded the Detours EP twice, cycling through three engineers before settling on the aforementioned Lord-Alge, and Ludwig for mastering.
 
There’s something familiar about Detours– an early 2000s pop punk flavour à la New Found Glory, The Ataris, and All American Rejects but with a broader style of writing and a higher standard of production. It would be easy for Thought Beneath Film to sit back, stay within the confines of the formula, and ride it to a level of moderate, but short-lived mainstream success. But they’ve taken a higher road, adding complex secondary guitar parts, vocal effects, and layers to disguise their standard guitar, bass, and drum setup.
 
There are no throwaway songs on this EP, from the first single ‘If I Could Fix You (You Know That I Would)’ to ‘Sixty Six’. Each has a distinctive hook and driving melody, with multi-harmony vocals, plenty of tambourine, and endless opportunities to sing along with the “bah bah bah”s and the “doo doo doo”s. Everything is fresh, earnest, and upbeat. Thought Beneath Film aren’t about pretending to be something they’re not. They’re not even trying to change your life with this EP. But in the end, I bet Detours will outlast the flavour-of-the-week album your friends are raving about right now.