With The Hum Goes On Forever, The Wonder Years have taken cues from all that they've learned over the fifteen years since their debut while sounding reignited and more inspired, thanks in large part to the birth of Dan Campbell's son Wyatt. The younger Campbell is more impactful on the album's lyrics than any of the places, possessions and situations that arise, and for good reason; in his son, Campbell sees the reason for existing that he's previously struggled to discover. This sentiment shows up most obviously on Wyatt's Song (Your Name), wherein Wyatt's heartbeat becomes the rhythm to his father's life, and on closer You're the Reason I Don't Want the World to End, a quiet reflection on fatherhood that finds hope in a hopeless world.
Elsewhere, old themes and characters do resurface; the depression Campbell has wrestled with throughout his band's discography is acknowledged straight away on opener Doors I Painted Shut, which showcases just how far he's come as a songwriter and lyricist. There are more obvious Easter eggs for fans in Oldest Daughter, which reprises Madelyn from 2013's The Greatest Generation and finds the former's titular character somewhat worse for wear compared to when we last heard from her. Taking it even further, Cardinals (a cathartic highlight from 2015's No Closer to Heaven) gets a direct sequel here; Cardinals II is slower and more methodical while expanding on the theme of the original.
The Paris of Nowhere, meanwhile, is another in a long line of not entirely flattering odes to the band's hometown of Philadelphia (the opening line even expressing adulation for quarterback Nick Foles, who led the Eagles to the NFL championship in 2017). It's a fiery tune that hearkens back to The Wonder Years' earlier material, which makes the sullen, acoustic Summer Clothes stand out for the wrong reasons; sandwiching the quicker, louder song between two ballads feels like poor sequencing and, if I'm permitted just a little overthinking, arguably lessens the overall impact of all three songs.
The Wonder Years don't make things easier on the second half, jumping around between styles and moods haphazardly; Lost in the Lights starts moody before bringing the tempo back up and uses a big and melodic chorus to address the echoes of teenage choices, while Songs About Death is a brooding, dissonant experiment in heaviness that plods along but more or less hits the mark. We're then plunged back into the pop punk throwback vibes on the high energy Low Tide before having the rug pulled out from under us on the melancholic piano ballad Laura & the Beehive, which is another otherwise gorgeous sounding song that feels like a black hole designed to suck the life out of the album due to its placement immediately following and immediately leading into rippers. Old Friends Like Lost Teeth is that latter ripper, another slashing rocker that would have sounded right at home on Suburbia.
Given the mixed bag of ballads and rockers presented, I can see the difficulty in concluding which order to present these songs in, as it seemingly exists at two separate extremes with very little material that falls in between them; that said, off the top of my head I'd switch The Paris of Nowhere with Songs About Death, swap Lost in the Lights and Old Friends Like Lost Teeth and hope like hell this things flows better because of it. Still, even though it's a wildly inconsistent listen, there's nothing that sounds wrong or unwelcome; just because a song is out of place doesn't mean it doesn't belong. The Wonder Years remain one of the best bands of their class, dragging their book smart pop punk into adulthood and challenging fans to grow up with them while proving capable of creating effective art outside of their established comfort zone.
September 23, 2022 • Hopeless
Highlights Oldest Daughter • Cardinals II • Low Tide
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