CD Reviews

Lifetime

Lifetime | Decaydance/Fueled by Ramen

By MIKAEL WOOD | February 6, 2007

2.5 Stars

After eight years of inactivity, this scrappy New Jersey band reunited in 2005, to the delight of the countless emo kids who’ve singled out Lifetime as a primary influence. One of those kids is Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz; he’s such a fan that he signed the group to his Decaydance label last year. FOB and Panic! at the Disco (another Decaydance act) have taken emo’s ascent to the Top 40 as a mandate to experiment, edging away from the music’s basement-show roots and toward an embrace of fusion and theatricality. Wizened underground denizens who trust MTV as much as they do the CIA, the guys in Lifetime demonstrate no such interest in breaking form on this CD, their first release since re-forming: these 11 rave-ups sound exactly like what you would’ve heard at an all-ages gig in New Brunswick back in the mid ’90s. Is that a bummer? Only for those who’ve lost their taste for the ritualized pleasures of the basement-show existence. I mean, if even Pete Wentz can’t find an outfit better at doing this stuff, it probably doesn’t exist.

Lifetime | Axis, 13 Lansdowne Street, Boston | February 11 | 617.931.2000

Topics: CD Reviews , Pete Wentz, Fall Out Boy, Panic! At the Disco, More

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Lifetime, Songs from Lifetime

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