Album Review: Stephen Egerton - The Seven Degrees of Stephen Egerton

Stephen Egerton, guitarist for the legendary seminal pop-punk band The Descendants took some time off his schedule with the reunited band to write "The Seven Degrees of Stephen Egerton": 16 punk rock outbursts with guest vocals on every single song from punk rock vocalists.

The songs focus mainly on the guitar (which is heavily emphasized in the mix) work which is worthy of the standard punk rock ethic: "keep it simple". For the most part, this leads to most of the songs sounding pretty much the same, and don't tread into any new territory for the famed guitarist. This leaves space for the various vocalists to make a difference. Dan Adriano (of Alkaline Trio fame) gives it a decent shot on "Our Last Song" and Scott Reynolds (of ALL) helps 'Sunny Disposition' work a lot better than it should.

But it is only really when Egerton is teamed up with fellow Descendant vocalist Milo Aukerman that the song sounds the most natural. The obvious chemistry between the two legends make "She's Got Everything" the standout track in Descendants fashion.

Paper + Plastick have made a great job of single-handedly trying to save punk rock by backing the more visceral and "old-school" bands of recent memory, yet Stephen Egerton's work sounds more like a compilation of b-sides here rather than a consistent album. This doesn't make the album bad, just decent.

2.5/5

'The Seven Degrees of Stephen Egerton' by Stephen Egerton is available now on Paper + Plastick Records.

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James Berclaz-Lewis