:: Millencolin - Machine 15

Millencolin

Everyone has to face the fact that they’re bound to age and mature as the years roll on. And the same goes for musicians. In the case of long running Swedish pop/punk rock act Millencolin, examples of their growing up were all too evident on their last couple of releases ‘Home From Home’ (2002) and ‘Kingwood’ (2005), which at best were a mash up of their adolescent past and their attempt to move towards a more grown up future. With their recent attempts at maturing their sound, considered by some of their devoted fan base as a failed experimentation, the four piece act have had to rethink their direction on their eighth full-length effort ‘Machine 15’, and they seem to have managed to put themselves back on track. As a whole, ‘Machine 15’ is a clever balance of Millencolin’s most recent musical directions, which means that while ‘Machine 15’ is no ‘Pennybridge Pioneers’, it’s certainly a lot stronger than anything else the band have produced since then. The opening track ‘Machine 15’ (which refers to the fifteen years the band have been together) is a rocking number that pits great vocal/melody performance from Sarcevic against some hard hitting riffs, while the single ‘Detox’ is a catchy slice of punk/pop.

From here, there seems to be an amalgamation of the band’s sound, balancing hard rock (such as is ‘Broken World’, ‘Vicious Circle’, ‘Brand New Game’, the classic orchestral enhanced ‘Ducks & Drakes’ and ‘Saved By Hell’) alongside the maturer pop/punk sound the band have developed in their later years (as heard in tracks like ‘Who’s Laughing Now’, ‘Turnkey Paradise’, ‘Route One’ and the orchestrated ‘Done Is Done’). Growing up isn’t an easy thing, especially given that punk/pop rock is essentially a younger band’s game. But what Millencolin failed to do on their last couple of albums, they have well and truly accomplished on ‘Machine 15’, and that is to mature with dignity, without losing that spark. In a word, ‘Machine 15’ is classy.