The High Speed Scene - The High Speed Scene

Genre rock Publisher Star Trak / Interscope External Links Official Site Interscope

The High Speed Scene are either: 1) Clique-y suburban high schoolers who say, in an unselfconscious fashion, things like "hella" and "kickin' it," or 2) Adults who write songs in character, sung from the perspective of clique-y suburban high schoolers, with lingo tossed around for satire's sake.

I'm genuinely unsure, but lean toward the second interpretation. Nada Surf did this sort of thing years ago; imagine "Popular," but stretched to rock-opera length (and sung by Green Day). The social commentary, largely animated by observations about cars, is less than penetrating.

These are the smallest big songs I've ever heard. Dana Deathray's radio-friendly production whips up loudness, but no struggle. Choruses presumably meant to sound anthemic ("There's never been a day like this one, oh no/ There's never been a day like this one") just come off as repetitive. All of which is a shame, because frontman / songwriter Max Hart seems capable of more diverting fare. He writes some nice, mildly surprising chord changes, and in the last verse of "F**k & Spend" his singing becomes interestingly unhinged. When on occasion the band departs from the pop-punk formula entirely, however, the results, the Strokes-y stutter of "In the Know," the warmed over Weezer of "Crazy" are the album's least successful bits.

Is this how L.A. feels? That's where the band comes from, and maybe their self-titled debut accurately conjures their glossy home. Based on my limited exposure to that strange place, I'm skeptical. Shouldn't the music inspired by Southern California be a little more surreal?