It simply sucks

In the past, it seemed really easy for “true” punk fans to bash Simple Plan for being too, well, simple. The band delivered two albums full of pop hits that brought it worldwide success from teenage girls without driver’s licenses and scorn from scenesters who thought they were “poseurs.”
But Simple Plan never claimed to be anything other than a pop band. As such, its members deserved a miniscule amount of respect for staying true to themselves, unlike punk wannabes Good Charlotte and Sum 41.
At least until it released its latest effort, the self-titled Simple Plan.
Simple Plan completely erases any remnants of pop-punk in the band’s sound and instead replaces it with terrible over-the-top production. Although none of the band’s musicians were ever that strong, any strength they had is nonexistent here, while singer Pierre Bouvier whines over arrangements that were probably rejected by Fall Out Boy.
The biggest culprits of this are “The End” and “Generation,” both of which feature Bouvier’s dreadfully failed attempt at a more suave delivery along with beats that sound like they’re coming from a high-school pep band. The latter includes truly triumphant lyrics such as “It’s going down tonight / We’re gonna do it ’til we die / Cause I got no reason to apologize / That’s my generation.” If that’s supposed to be some anthem for our generation, then we really are in as bad a place as all the pundits say.
It wouldn’t be a Simple Plan record without a sappy piano ballad like the hits “Untitled” and “Perfect,” but here the band got carried away a bit. “Save You,” “I Can Wait Forever” and “No Love” all follow that same formula. Of course, you expect some mediocre lyrics from Simple Plan, but “There’s only hate / There’s only tears / There’s only pain / There’s no love here” is pathetic for even its standards.
Simple Plan had a good thing going as the uber-popular pop band of this decade. Unfortunately, its failing attempts to up the ante by including more diverse arrangements like direct competitor Fall Out Boy prove they were better off keeping things simple.