Continued From Above

at shows, the band followed up their late-2008 limited seven-inch with their first full length record Meet Me At The Bottom, aptly named for the New Jersey attitude them and so many of their predecessors epitomize. Starting with “The Count of Monte Fisto,” a re-recording of a track that opened their demo, the band then proceeds to plow through ten more tracks full of teenage desperation and punk rock melody that doesn’t let up. “Here’s My Destroyer” is the closest thing to a ballad, and it too mirrors the message of the album’s title, as lead singer Travis Omilian cries, “At 17 I knew / we’d shoot for the Western coast / and wash-up ashore / at the bottom of the Jersey shows.” More desperation is demonstrated on the next track, as Travis wonders, “What’s the point of a family/that’s got no heart to beat?” Anybody that’s been in their late teens and early twenties with a feeling of desperateness and a lack of any future prospects is sure to relate to the lyrics. Countless bands with countless styles have spawned from New Brunswick, and Let Me Run certainly model themselves in the vein of bands like Bouncing Souls and The Gaslight Anthem, who’ve been able to make music that reaches and is relevant to far more than just their geographic peers. With the addition of some slower songs and acoustic guitars into the tried-and-true three-minute pop punk song equation, there’s no doubt that if Let Me Run look to expand and build their sound off the base they’ve already laid, they’ll have a bright future ahead. - Rob Drucker

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