This Is Only a Test
Encyclopedia
This Is Only a Test is the sixth studio album by the Chicago
-based pop punk
band the Smoking Popes
, released March 15, 2011 through Asian Man Records
. It was produced
by Matt Allison and is their first album with drummer Neil Hennessy
, who joined the band in 2008. It is a concept album
, with all of the songs written from the perspective of a single teenage boy dealing with the growing pains of adolescence
. Singer, guitarist, and songwriter Josh Caterer
described it as "kind of a concept album about a teenage life. All of the songs are written from the point of view of a high school student, and they explore aspects of teenage life. This would be [about] a contemporary teenager. It's not specifically autobiographical of my high school experience. Obviously, those things are incorporated into what I write, but I tried to create a character who is the protagonist in these songs."
. The idea to write a concept album about teenage life came to Caterer while thinking about successful contemporary bands who cited the Smoking Popes as an influence:
With the idea in place to write from a teenage perspective, "the individual songs came really quickly", said Caterer, "I wrote a song a day for five days. That's half the album in less than a week. I never write that fast! Each song stands alone as a snapshot from this kid's life. The story doesn't unfold like a narrative. It's more like a collage." According to Caterer, the album's main character is not autobiographicial, but "definitely a creation. He's not me. Well...he's similar to me, but he's not limited by the realities of my own experience. I created a character that basically has the same view of the world that I had when I was in high school, but he’s his own person and he does some things that I never did."
the song "Punk Band" exclusively through Alternative Press, followed several weeks later by streaming the entire album through Punknews.org
. The band embarked on a supporting tour of the United States from February to April of that year. A music video
for "Punk Band" premiered March 1, 2011.
('I've Got Mono'), and rock & roll itself ('Punk Band') — [Josh] Caterer addresses them with a refreshing lack of either eye-rolling or rhapsodic mystification." He also praised the band's musical maturity, noting "the blend of smoothly crooning vocals and meat-and-potatoes, punk-inflected pop that has always been the hallmark of the Smoking Popes' sound and has only become tighter, richer, and more hook-wise over the years." Jon Gilbertson of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
compared the album's concept to The Who
's Quadrophenia
, which also structured its themes around the difficulties of teenage life: "Although This Is Only a Test doesn't try to match Quadrophenia, it does convey the same realization that there's no such thing, for the young, as the folly of youth. And Caterer's voice, perhaps the most tunefully expressive in the entire pop-punk sub-genre, brings across the way small things grow gigantic under the influence of hormones."
Bryne Yancey of Alternative Press was critical of the band's musical divergences on the album, stating that "Unfortunately, much like adolescence itself, This Is Only a Test isn't without its moments of awkwardness. Whether it's piano-heavy power ballads ('College'), spoken-word verses written as diary entries ('Diary of a Teen Tragedy') or five-minute electronic tracks about not being able to participate in P.E.
class ('Excuse Me, Coach'), Smoking Popes occasionally veer off their tried and true template of catchy, soulful pop-punk, and do so with mixed results." However, he noted that "there are still plenty of hooks to be found on the album, especially it its loaded first half", comparing the band to Weezer
and calling the album "a mostly successful experiment." Tori of Punknews.org
had similar criticisms, saying of "Excuse Me, Coach" that "I'm not sure what they were thinking, and I'm not sure I want to know", and calling the spoken-word verses in "Diary of a Teen Tragedy" "downright cringeworthy": "The reality remains that the Caterer brothers are not high schoolers. Hearing a man in his late 30s sing about how he can't get a prom date is a little off-putting." However, he called these "small complaints", concluding that "Aside from a couple blunders, This Is Only a Test is a thoroughly enjoyable pop-rock album. At a brisk 10 songs totaling less than 40 minutes, it leaves you wanting more. Plenty to sing along to here."
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
-based pop punk
Pop punk
Pop punk is a fusion music genre that combines elements of punk rock with pop music, to varying degrees. Allmusic describes the genre as a strand of alternative rock, which typically merges pop melodies with speedy punk tempos, chord changes and loud guitars...
band the Smoking Popes
Smoking Popes
The Smoking Popes are an American pop punk from the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, formed in 1991. They play punk-influenced pop music with crooning vocals...
, released March 15, 2011 through Asian Man Records
Asian Man Records
Asian Man Records is a small, DIY record label run by Mike Park in Monte Sereno, California. Park started a record label and began releasing music in 1989 under the name Dill Records, with the Asian Man label established May 1996.-Artists:...
. It was produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
by Matt Allison and is their first album with drummer Neil Hennessy
Neil Hennessy
Neil Kevin Hennessy is a musician and music producer/engineer from Chicago, Illinois.Hennessy currently plays in The Lawrence Arms, Colossal, The Falcon, The Smoking Popes and Demon Beach. He has also been a member of Noise By Numbers, Baxter, The Killing Tree, and Quattro.Hennessy works at Atlas...
, who joined the band in 2008. It is a concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
, with all of the songs written from the perspective of a single teenage boy dealing with the growing pains of adolescence
Adolescence
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood , but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage...
. Singer, guitarist, and songwriter Josh Caterer
Josh Caterer
Josh Caterer is a Chicago-area musician and songwriter. With his brothers, Eli Caterer and Matt Caterer , he was a founding member in 1991 of The Smoking Popes, in which Josh plays lead guitar and sings. After his conversion to Christianity the Smoking Popes split up, and Caterer later founded...
described it as "kind of a concept album about a teenage life. All of the songs are written from the point of view of a high school student, and they explore aspects of teenage life. This would be [about] a contemporary teenager. It's not specifically autobiographical of my high school experience. Obviously, those things are incorporated into what I write, but I tried to create a character who is the protagonist in these songs."
Concept and writing
This Is Only a Test explores themes of identity, musical aspirations, love, and teen suicideYouth suicide
Youth suicide is when a young person deliberately ends his or her own life. Rates of attempted and completed youth suicide in Western societies are high...
. The idea to write a concept album about teenage life came to Caterer while thinking about successful contemporary bands who cited the Smoking Popes as an influence:
I was thinking about some of the younger bands who claim Smoking Popes as one of their influences and have gone onto become very successful in this generation. I [thought about] how their music is different than ours, and what they're doing differently than what we've done. I realized that one of the things I've never done is write from an explicitly teenage point of view--even when I was a teenager. I was always trying to pretend like I was older. I was trying to emulate the kind of perspective and sophistication of the older generation. It occurred to me that it would be funny if now, while I'm in my late 30s, I would actually start writing songs from a teenage perspective. As soon as that thought occurred to me, I got ideas for, like, the first five songs on the record. They just sort of started coming to me. So I went home and started writing and they just came out. That became the beginning of the next record.
With the idea in place to write from a teenage perspective, "the individual songs came really quickly", said Caterer, "I wrote a song a day for five days. That's half the album in less than a week. I never write that fast! Each song stands alone as a snapshot from this kid's life. The story doesn't unfold like a narrative. It's more like a collage." According to Caterer, the album's main character is not autobiographicial, but "definitely a creation. He's not me. Well...he's similar to me, but he's not limited by the realities of my own experience. I created a character that basically has the same view of the world that I had when I was in high school, but he’s his own person and he does some things that I never did."
Recording and promotion
This Is Only a Test was recorded at Atlas Studios in Chicago beginning in April 2010. The album's title and release date were announced that November. In February 2011 the band streamedStreaming media
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...
the song "Punk Band" exclusively through Alternative Press, followed several weeks later by streaming the entire album through Punknews.org
Punknews.org
Punknews.org is a website founded by Aubin Paul which launched in 1999. The website publishes music news and album reviews relating to punk rock, hardcore punk, ska, indie rock and heavy metal...
. The band embarked on a supporting tour of the United States from February to April of that year. A music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for "Punk Band" premiered March 1, 2011.
Reception
Rick Anderson of Allmusic gave This Is Only a Test four stars out of five, remarking that "While [the songs] deal with some predictable themes — obsessive and unrequited love ('Wish We Were,' 'Diary of a Teen Tragedy'); ambivalence about the future ('College'); monoMononucleosis
Mononucleosis , is a disease most commonly caused by the Epstein-Barr virus . The EBV virus affects the lymphocytes- white blood cells that battle infections by attacking antibodies. Mononucleosis can also be caused by Cytomegalovirus , a herpes virus most commonly found in body fluids...
('I've Got Mono'), and rock & roll itself ('Punk Band') — [Josh] Caterer addresses them with a refreshing lack of either eye-rolling or rhapsodic mystification." He also praised the band's musical maturity, noting "the blend of smoothly crooning vocals and meat-and-potatoes, punk-inflected pop that has always been the hallmark of the Smoking Popes' sound and has only become tighter, richer, and more hook-wise over the years." Jon Gilbertson of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. It is the primary newspaper in Milwaukee, the largest newspaper in Wisconsin and is distributed widely throughout the state...
compared the album's concept to The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
's Quadrophenia
Quadrophenia
Quadrophenia is the sixth studio album by English rock band The Who. Released on 19 October 1973 by Track and Polydor in the UK, and Track and MCA in the US, it is a double album, and the group's second rock opera...
, which also structured its themes around the difficulties of teenage life: "Although This Is Only a Test doesn't try to match Quadrophenia, it does convey the same realization that there's no such thing, for the young, as the folly of youth. And Caterer's voice, perhaps the most tunefully expressive in the entire pop-punk sub-genre, brings across the way small things grow gigantic under the influence of hormones."
Bryne Yancey of Alternative Press was critical of the band's musical divergences on the album, stating that "Unfortunately, much like adolescence itself, This Is Only a Test isn't without its moments of awkwardness. Whether it's piano-heavy power ballads ('College'), spoken-word verses written as diary entries ('Diary of a Teen Tragedy') or five-minute electronic tracks about not being able to participate in P.E.
Physical education
Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
class ('Excuse Me, Coach'), Smoking Popes occasionally veer off their tried and true template of catchy, soulful pop-punk, and do so with mixed results." However, he noted that "there are still plenty of hooks to be found on the album, especially it its loaded first half", comparing the band to Weezer
Weezer
Weezer is an American alternative rock band. The band currently consists of Rivers Cuomo , Patrick Wilson , Brian Bell , and Scott Shriner . The band has changed lineups three times since its formation in 1992...
and calling the album "a mostly successful experiment." Tori of Punknews.org
Punknews.org
Punknews.org is a website founded by Aubin Paul which launched in 1999. The website publishes music news and album reviews relating to punk rock, hardcore punk, ska, indie rock and heavy metal...
had similar criticisms, saying of "Excuse Me, Coach" that "I'm not sure what they were thinking, and I'm not sure I want to know", and calling the spoken-word verses in "Diary of a Teen Tragedy" "downright cringeworthy": "The reality remains that the Caterer brothers are not high schoolers. Hearing a man in his late 30s sing about how he can't get a prom date is a little off-putting." However, he called these "small complaints", concluding that "Aside from a couple blunders, This Is Only a Test is a thoroughly enjoyable pop-rock album. At a brisk 10 songs totaling less than 40 minutes, it leaves you wanting more. Plenty to sing along to here."
Track listing
Band
- Josh CatererJosh CatererJosh Caterer is a Chicago-area musician and songwriter. With his brothers, Eli Caterer and Matt Caterer , he was a founding member in 1991 of The Smoking Popes, in which Josh plays lead guitar and sings. After his conversion to Christianity the Smoking Popes split up, and Caterer later founded...
– lead vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, keyboardsElectronic keyboardAn electronic keyboard is an electronic or digital keyboard instrument.The major components of a typical modern electronic keyboard are:... - Eli Caterer – guitar, backing vocals
- Matt Caterer – bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, backing vocals - Neil HennessyNeil HennessyNeil Kevin Hennessy is a musician and music producer/engineer from Chicago, Illinois.Hennessy currently plays in The Lawrence Arms, Colossal, The Falcon, The Smoking Popes and Demon Beach. He has also been a member of Noise By Numbers, Baxter, The Killing Tree, and Quattro.Hennessy works at Atlas...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, backing vocals
Additional musicians
- Jacob Sooter – pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
on "College" - Matt Allison – drum programmingDrum machineA drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
on "Excuse Me, Coach" - Stefanie Caterer – female vocal on "Letter to Emily"
- Jenny ChoiJenny ChoiJenny Choi is a singer and cellist who founded the Asians in Rock tour and is the lead singer of the two-piece Chicago band, Sanawon. For many years she performed solo at the University of IL in Urbana Champaign as well as with a back-up band...
– celloCelloThe cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
on "Letter to Emily"
Production
- Matt Allison – record producerRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, recording engineerAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
, mix engineerMix engineerA mix engineer, also referred to as "mixing engineer", is a person who, once all instruments, voices, and sounds, etc., have been recorded, creates what is called the final version of a song, hence the term "mix engineer"... - Justin Yates – assistant engineer
- Colin Jordan – masteringAudio masteringMastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...