While its cut-and-paste, two-color cover art might suggest that
Five is the work of a gritty punk rock shock squad, it's actually a five-song EP from
Don't Look Down, a New Jersey quartet that proves itself strikingly adept at the kind of hook-laden pop-punk plied by
MXPX,
Jimmy Eat World, and
Starting Line. Dueling guitars, anthemic tempo shifts, crashing drum fills, pleading, high-pitched lead vocals -- they're all here, packed into four electric rockers and one acoustic ballad (that last one will definitely have the girls swooning). It's true that
Five is derivative. But is this
Don't Look Down's fault? Theirs is only the latest expertly crafted pop-punk record to be issued in a genre chock-full of expertly crafted pop-punk records. And they are only the latest quartet of interchangeably handsome dudes with cool tattoos and all the right surf and skate sponsorships. There's no reason why
DLD and
Five shouldn't appeal to fans of the above bands; at the same time, there's nothing really separating these guys from their peers. It's a good thing their name is emblazoned across the front of the disc. ~ Johnny Loftus