In normal circumstances, I generally find pop-punk to be the most overused and unimaginative genres of modern popular music. Unfortunately for Porthcawl’s ‘Stereo By The Shore’, these are very normal circumstances. It’s difficult to know what to say about this record without it sounding like a review for one of the million other Blink-182 rip off bands from the last 10 years.

It’s not that ‘The Soundtrack To My Life’ is a bad record; far from it in fact – it ticks all of the right boxes, e.g., catchy choruses, upbeat, carefree vibes, simple structures, simple rhythms, token American forced accents... but this is all part of the problem. The world just doesn’t need another band that closely imitates the hard work of countless other previous acts and passes it off as their own. The band list acts such as New Found Glory, Green Day, +44, Angels & Airwaves and big surprise – Blink-182 as their influences. These aren’t influences; they are copyright victims.

Sure, the title track and ‘Sorry We’re Just Friends’ are massive tunes that sound like they have been perfectly crafted by bigger named bands and credit to ‘Stereo By The Shore’ for pulling it off, but unfortunately The Soundtrack To My Life’ EP doesn’t float my boat. It’s the fake American accent and the sheer lack of drive to create something new and exciting that did it for me.

I really genuinely hope to see the band bounce back and prove me wrong with their next outing because they have shown us that they are a tight band with a good attitude and many years ahead of them, but until then it’s a big no from me I’m sorry to say!