rated

While I'll admit that I'm partial to Goldfinger's bouncing ska-core and high-energy live shows, their latest release shows some musical growth but just doesn't have the spark and fire of their earlier work. Nevertheless, there are high points. John Feldmann's tuneful bellow is in good form, and so are Darrin Pfeiffer's popping drums. Although the band still sounds like they're having the time of their lives on tracks like "Counting the Days" and "Forgiveness," Stomping Ground lacks the irrepressible, smirking energy of their debut.

Throughout, Goldfinger's definitely playing a new game. They fine tune their pop on songs like "San Simeon" and "Get Away From Me," mixing the usual driving racket with acoustic and slide guitars. Lyrically, the songs cover the expected ground of punk rockers who manage to sell a pile of records -- namely, who's punk, who's not, who's a poser and who's hard core. But Goldfinger's grown up here, too. In the last line of "The End of the Day," Feldmann concedes "Really, it's just music, after all." Other songs tread familiar pop ground -- relationships, for the most part, with a focus on the breakup and the blame.

Goldfinger's obligatory nod to their New Wave childhood surfaces in the form of a punk lite cover of Nena's "99 Red Balloons." Unfortunately, 7 Seconds did it first and better 15 years ago on Walk Together Rock Together, and Goldfinger's tame version certainly won't be dethroning that legendary track. Originally recorded as part of 1999's all-cover Darrin's Coconut Ass: Live EP, this one should have stayed on the editing room floor.

While Goldfinger are maturing musically, they were a lot more fun when they were juvenile. Nonetheless, Stomping Ground is 14 songs of well-executed pop punk, with more emphasis on the "pop" than the "punk" these days.

~ Sacha A. Howells, CheckOut.com