Four Letter Language - 13/14

Four Letter Language

13/14
self-released; 2014

3.0 out of 5

By Ted Rogen

Four Letter Language is three young men, Walker Glenn (vocals/guitar), Parker Long (bass) and Joey Mains (drums), who are barely out of high school and have released a four-song EP entitled 13/14. They ask on their Bandcamp page whether it is a demo or EP and I can tell you from an aesthetic perspective it sounds like a demo. 

The hardest thing to get through on the four songs was the sound of the bass drum. I haven’t heard a bass drum sounding this out of place in some time. It contains way too many high-end frequencies, very few low-end frequencies and sticks out of the mix even at low volumes. 

Four Letter Language plays pretty basic sound pop punk. The band as of yet doesn’t have any defining characteristics but that doesn’t mean they won’t in the future. It’s music made by teenagers for teenagers. It’s really that simple. They sing about rejection, loss, friendship and nostalgia in a very teenage kind of way.

I’m sure the topics and the ways they are delivered will appeal to people between the age of about 10 to as old as 25. I honestly can’t see anyone who grew up on rock anywhere from the ‘60s to early ‘90s embracing this music. 

The first song “Saving Seats on Sinking Ships” takes all the tropes from pop punk and applies them. They did their homework and the band gets points for knowing what works in the genre. Glenn has a good voice for this genre and a decent singing voice in general. Overall the song wasn’t bad but I couldn’t get past the sound of the obviously in your face bass drum. It took away from the melody. Every melody.

The next two tracks “ The Very Last Second” and “Burn This Crown” are very much in the same vein of the first song. In fact there was very little that felt different about the songs. I did enjoy the beginning guitar riff on “Burn This Crown” but had a laugh at the comical demon growl that you hear about a minute-and-a-half in. 

They close with a respectable song “Fast Times at Friendswood High” that contains some decent acoustic guitar playing. The song is nostalgic in a pop punk type of way and isn’t too shabby. 

Four Letter Language has talent but it’s not focused at this point and they are just playing what they have heard elsewhere. The band is really young and I know that these things take time to develop. Finding your own sound is difficult but I suggest they start finding a way to develop a creative process that is conducive to more originality.

Even if this demo was professionally recorded their music would land into one of the most oversaturated markets out there with nothing on it that make you think that this is Four Letter Language. Think outside of the box, don’t listen to music right before you write and do something different. Godspeed.

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