Tastes Like Rock Magazine

Dear You delivers some tight pop punk goodness on their six song EP, I Can Only Blame Myself. Plenty of emotion in these songs, not dipping into emo territory though. Not a mold breaker for the pop punk genre, but nonetheless this Texas based three piece outfit refines the genre pretty damn well; this reviewer is hoping to hear more from them soon! Typical pop punk still has a lot of the bratty snot-nosed attitude that was the cornerstone of early bands that birthed the term. Not so here, and that is refreshing; Dear You has taken a more grown up approach to their compositions. Maturing the genre's sound while not losing it's energy, which is more what pop punk should be about; pop punk should be the answer to the sell out drivel that came out as punk was forced into the mainstream after the rock revival of the early 2000's. Granted, I have personal disdain for some of those bands that jumped into the pop punk pool to make money, but the ones that were exploring what punk could be with a pop flavor that allowed the genre to slip into the mainstream as well but not lose the classic punk attitude... they were spot on. Dear You has taken that formal and done it all over again, but with said maturation, they don't come off as bored suburban kids mad they didn't get a car for their 16th birthday or that they were turned down for a date with the head cheerleader.