The BMX Riders, soccer-players and pop-punk musicians are back after their “Hopeless Romantic” tragedy. Not tragedy in a bad or negative sense, but that record impressed only the biggest fans of the band, because it was a bit slow, althought there is no doubt it had some great songs ( “Kid” had some good sing-along chorus).

“How I Spent My Summer Vacation” probably means that the Souls spent their last summer writing the song for the new record and I guess they had a great time, as the 13 songs on this album are simply enjoyable pop-punk: short, fun, with some choruses in the classic Bouncing Souls fashion.

“That Song” opens the album, and from the lyric there is no doubt that the music theme will come back in some other songs, as “Broken Record”, “Private Radio”, “Break-Up Song”. Althought they sing a lot about music ( did they listen to a lot of record on their summer vacation?), the record has also some more “serious” issues, as in “Gone” or “Lifetime”, that deal with love stories. Anyway there is no time to feel sad, as “Manthem” - the best song in my opinion -and “Better Life” are what it takes to make a person feel better: “Manthem” in particular has some great “Oi Oi Oi” sing alongs in the middle of the song and it has some positive lyric, where I could heard also The Pete and Brian singing, apart the usual voice of Greg.

I bet that if the Bouncing Souls were asked if they could do such a good and fresh album, they would have answered “I dunno”…instead “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” is here and it is here to stay in my record player for a long time! (Carlo)