Screaming Bloody Murder
You probably haven’t paid much attention to Sum 41 since their 2001 bubblegum punk hit “Fat Lip.” Keep doing that. On subsequent discs, frontman Deryck Whibley has aspired to depth outside his skill set. 2004’s Chuck was inspired by war in the Congo; the band’s newest seems touched by a lesser holocaust, Whibley’s 2010 divorce from Avril Lavigne. “Take the pictures off the wall/Erase the thoughts, forget them all,” he sings. Whibley cleans out his soul closet over operatic hard rock, rain-swept balladry and bad Green Day opera punk – often crammed into the same song. If he’s trying to show breakups are arduous, it worked.
Listen to “Screaming Bloody Murder:”