And then we’re gonna STAY IN BROOKYLN GODDAMMIT…
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[6.62]
Jonathan Bradley: Midway between emo revivalism and punk-pop eternity lies a band of Brooklynites too impetuous to care about either. “Eleanor” could be a love song or a friendship song or both, but it’s naggingly nostalgic before its time, and, as an account of a relationship, both specific and piquantly expansive. “After I played you the first song I wrote/You said you thought it had potential” is so low-key a reminiscence, and so middling a review, that any emotion it contains most be scurried out. The rest is like this too: “Remember those kids who used to hate our politics?/We were so self-righteous.” It’s all so plain and plaintive — Anika Pyle’s voice firmly included in this category — that, in it’s sub-three minute runtime, there are caverns of loss.
[8]
Anthony Easton: I just like to imagine this as a slight and charming queer love song, and because of that, I find it slightly more heartbreaking than perhaps is intended.
[7]
Alfred Soto: She may not understand your politics because you’re so damn vague about them, including the 2001 chord progression.
[2]
Crystal Leww: Pop punk never really went away; the kids have been continuing to do this forever, but thank god for bands like Swearin’ who finally brought it back into full view of everyone else. Chumped frontwoman Anika is a particularly talented vocalist with an ability to bring to life the kind of alcohol-fueled, heart-on-yr-sleeve lyrics that these furious guitar and drum patterns go perfectly well with. Eleanor of this song belongs in the pantheon of first-name-only teenage pop punk girls, in the same as category of Josie or Delilah. She is not so much a complete person so much as a reflection of whoever is talking about her; she doesn’t exist outside of the context of how the author remembers her. “Eleanor” is a reflection of how growing up never really exists in vacuum and how at the end of the day, it’s not so much events or incidents as it’s the people who fill memories.
[8]
Patrick St. Michel: Not everyone runs away from the past. Usually, it’s an un-cinematic case of opportunities arising and of choices needing to be made. The protagonist in “Eleanor” realizes this — “I know I left behind things I’ve loved before,” — and it comes off like nagging guilt. It’s not a persistent feeling, but a bubbling that can become consuming when a memory (or an e-mail, or Wall post, or just a song) triggers it. Turns out this rush of half-remembered triumphs and sorrows sounds incredible over ramshackle pop punk, especially when delivered in rollicking shouts that communicate just as much joy in the past as pain.
[9]
Zach Lyon: Modern pop punk band, frowny-sounding melodies and all, writes a pastiche tribute to the pop punk of [someone]’s youth (which still exists!), invents or possibly rewrites a character to embody it, and succeeds so hard they give us THE BEST POP PUNK SONG I’VE HEARD ALL YEAR. Which is to say: yes, The Singles Jukebox really needs to cover more pop punk songs for me to listen to.
[8]
Scott Mildenhall: Unlike when The Turtles used a similar name to take the mick out of such soppy notions, it’d come as a surprise to find that the subject of “Eleanor”‘s is a construct — surely you don’t drop lines like the politics one into something like this unless they’re autobiographical. The sentiment hits in any case, if little else; when Anika Pyle kicks herself as she releases “but I never let you go” it feels like something more is coming. It doesn’t come.
[5]
Brad Shoup: The text is so plaintive… it’s daring me to either toss it out or give it way too much consideration. Was there an Eleanor? Or was the name chosen for canny aesthetics, or to fit a less canny rhyme? “After I played you the first song I wrote, you said you thought it had potential” is a pretty killer line, and it rhymes with nothing. The memories at hand are so universal, and depicted with a 70/30 mix of abject neediness and self-consciousness, cf. the bite the singer puts into the word “self-righteous”. Like any decent band in this style, Chumped lurch between sections, thin hacking chords giving way to a nagging turnaround, then off-beat rhythm guitar. As usual, I love the guys chiming in; somehow, it best sells “Eleanor” as something everyone can identify with, instead of imagining it. In those moments, I like to think they all knew her.
[6]