Pennywise - Yesterdays

Tracklist: 

01.What You Deserve 

02.Restless Time 

03.Noise Pollution 

04.Violence Never Ending 

05.Am Oi! 

06.Thanksgiving

07.She's A Winner 

08.Slow Down 

09.Public Defender 

10.No Way Out 

11.I Can Remember

Release date: July 15, 2014
Label: Epitaph


Reviewed by Chad Jensen


Yesterdays isn’t a “new’’ album per se. Yeah, it’s a new release, but the songs themselves are not new. In fact, they are old PW songs that are proverbial tracks from the ‘’cutting room floor’’. This album features songs written by the band’s founder, and original bassist, Jason Thirsk, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1996. RIP.

Thirsk wrote all of the best PW songs of the ‘90s, his magnum opus coming in the form of 1993’s “Unknown Road’’. This collection of songs were written by Thirsk back in the day, but most of them never found their way to any of PW’s albums. When vocalist, Jim Lindberg, returned to the band last year, instead of immediately jumping into the studio to write a new record, they decided to go back in time and re-hash these old Thirsk songs, in an effort to do something fresh and bond as a band. Could it be that PW was feeling a little bit of pressure to out-do what was one of the best melodic punk records of the last 10 years in “All or Nothing”? An album that featured Ignite’s Zoli Teglas on vocals? Maybe.

“Yesterdays” is a bit of a mixed bag. If you’re a big fan of PW’s first two EPs, “A Word From The Wise” and “Wildcard”, then you’ll very likely dig “Yesterdays”. The songs have that frantic feel of early PW, without the maturity that Thirsk developed as a songwriter over time.

My favorite track on the record is “Violence Never Ending”, which is a classic PW song. It was that familiar PW riff in the intro and the gruff, but melodic vocal delivery of Lindberg, delving into the laments of a crime filled world, similar to “Killing Time”, from the 1995 album “About Time”.


Another choice nugg is “Noise Pollution”, which features a really catchy chorus. When you listen to this record, you can clearly hear the 7 Seconds influence. Jason Thirsk was immensely influenced by 7 Seconds and their PMA (Positive Mental Attitude). No clearer instance could be found than in “Noise Pollution”.

 The album also features re-recorded versions of the hidden song on “Unknown Road”, “Slowdown”, which is an awesome song, but I’m not sure why PW felt that they needed to redo, and “No Way Out”, which originally appeared on the “A Word From The Wise” 7-inch.

To close out the album is “I can Remember”, which happens to be another song that feels a little bit like classic PW, but it is a rare love song, touching on the anguish of love long lost.

Overall, I’m a little bit disappointed in this album and I think PW would have been better served to just write a new album with new material, rather than a trip down memory lane to the songs of yore. It feels like they’re trying a little too hard to recapture the glory days. But it is very interesting and cathartic to hear old Jason Thirsk songs, who to this very day, is one of my favorite songwriters in punk rock history. I give it 2 stars out of 4.