Sum 41

It's been seven years since the Canadian trio Sum 41 made their debut in the heyday of pop-punk, but by the sound of their fifth album, no time has passed at all. Taking you back to the time when mildly disaffected boys in skate jeans videotaped wacky hijinks to a raucously melodic soundtrack, Underclass Hero is standard Warped Tour fare.

Sadly discarding any of the tight hooks he brought as co-producer to wife Avril Lavigne's The Best Damn Thing, Deryck Whibley instead provides a well-worn pop-punk sound for every song—one that's high on energy, but low on originality. Were it released by any other band, lead single "Underclass Hero" would be slapped with a plagiarism suit for its similarities to Sum 41's previous hit "Fat Lip." Meanwhile, "The Jester" targets the Green Day political anthem zone with its cry, "Now the president's dead / Because they blew off his head / No more neck to be red"—it's a catchy chorus, but one that's too familiar to have much impact.

—Abby McDonald
07.24.07