I like a bit of ska punk in the morning. Well, I actually need caffeine but there is little doubt that Victory Kid have put enough energy into their album “Catalyst” to negate the need for that morning coffee.
There is also something appealingly retro about this album. It has that feel of album from the times when all the best boys and girls would be found at the shopping mall and the local misfits would be found skateboarding themselves round and around whatever concrete monstrosities that big city developers left lying out for them. This is, of course, the here and now but it takes little in the way of imagination to believe that the youth of today could also relate to these songs that, whilst borne of yesterday, still sound as if they were as much ours as theirs.
If this were indeed yesterday then Victory Kid would undoubtedly be making noise on both FM radio and in the charts. “Catalyst” is a commercial album that will appeal not only to today’s marginal renegades but also to those who remember when all the best bands sounded just like this.