Stand Atlantic — Pink Elephant — Album Review
Pop Punk | Pop Rock | Rock
Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Music
Pink Elephant is the sophomore album from the Sydney-based pop-punk band that is Stand Atlantic. And honestly, I hadn’t fully heard of the band until a friend of mine recommended this album to me.
While I may be a little late to the party, in the case of reviewing this album, I still wanted to give it a shot after all of the good things I had heard about it, not to mention the apparent similarity in style to VUKOVI, who had also released their sophomore album in 2020. And considering how much I loved that album, I wanted to give Pink Elephant a shot, despite my very rare affinity towards pop-punk as a whole.
As somebody who went into this album completely afresh, I was surprised to find that Pink Elephant was almost a new experience for those keeping up with the band and their releases. With the only track to tease this album being “Jurassic Park”, the remaining ten tracks were introduced alongside the albums release.
That being said, it’s definitely fair to say that this album starts off strong with the opening track “Like That”. A wonderfully triumphant and epic sounding tune that acts as a stunning showcase of Bonnie Fraser’s remarkable vocals.
What follows are consistent energetic waves, that arrive in the form of tracks like “Shh!”, “Blurry”, and the aforementioned teaser. And despite this normally being a good thing, I feel that it did admittedly come to a point in which I was longing for change of mood after so many tracks on the first listen. We did thankfully get greeted by the beautiful and heart-wrenching slow-burner that was “Drink To Drown”.
But aside from that, Pink Elephant is a ricochet of colourful and glistening pop-punk goodness. And while I can definitely embrace the comparison between VUKOVI, I would also say that Stand Atlantic also have some stylistic similarities to Dream State, with the more emotional tracks, and even Dorian Electra, in the case of the sixth track “Wavelength”.
But there is a glaring issue that still stands. I think that lyrically, a lot of the tracks took me out of the moment slightly, and could’ve been more artful and strong in my opinion. Musically and vocally, this album really is close to phenomenal, but the songwriting just lets it down that little bit more.
On top of this, the whole pop-punk aesthetic of this album is still one that I feel (possibly in a biased way) reluctant towards. I mean sure, the energy and colour is definitely there, but there’s just something about this album that I feel had quite a slippery grip on my sense of engagement and connection with the project.
But when all is said and done, Stand Atlantic’s newest project is still one that I am glad to have discovered. I still feel that the band are yet to reach their stylistic pinnacle, but I have a good amount of faith that they are not far away from reaching it.
Favourite Tracks: Like That | Shh! | Drink To Drown |
Least Favourite Track: Silk & Satin
Hopeless Records
