Taking One For The Team

2016 release, Simple Plan's fifth full-length and most ambitious album so far. Taking One For The Team offers hard-hitting punk-fueled tracks alongside songs that delve into everything from reggae to delicate acoustic balladry. Longtime fans can rest assured that Taking One For The Team is packed with plenty of quintessential Simple Plan tracks, including the single Boom. The album starts out full-throttle with the brutal guitar and furious drumming of Opinion Overload. It's a song about following your heart and dreams no matter what people say or think, explains Bouvier. We're adults in our mid-thirties now, and we still have to deal with that. Sometimes you gotta remind yourself that it doesn't mean anything, that it's ok to stand up for yourself and be who you are and that's what's gonna set you apart. That same defiant spirit is present on I Refuse, where Simple Plan mine inspiration from punk/hardcore acts like Rise Against and Good Riddance, ultimately delivering the only punk anthem in recent memory to feature an elegant piano interlude. We grew up on that kind of music; it's in our DNA- we'll always need that energy and those super-fast, in-your-face songs that people love about this band, says bass player David Desrosiers of tracks like I Refuse or Nostalgic. I can already imagine us playing those songs live and seeing the crowd go crazy, singing along to every word.