A Place In The Sun is the second album from Orange County rock band, Lit. It was released 25 years ago, in February of 1999, and I noticed that not many people have talked about this album on album of the year, so I thought I’d do it. Here are my thoughts.

   To start off, I’d like to say the only reason I remember this band is from their hit single off of this album, “My Own Worst Enemy,” which is a total banger. As I did more research I learned that this band has been around since 1988, and that their original sound was much different than the sound they went for on this record. They made grunge, alternative and from 2016-2020, they made country music. I’m all for bands for experimenting with different sounds, but with Lit, it feels like they’re just trying genres that are wildly different than each other, in the hopes that it will be successful. I really like the sound of tracks like, “Four,” and “My Own Worst Enemy,” as they have a solid foundation instrumentally, and feel like genuine attempts at pop-punk. Most importantly, the band sounds like they’re having fun with the genre. I love the guitar riffs on the two tracks that I previously mentioned, but after that strong beginning, much of the record just kinda bores me. I’m a really big fan of ska punk and pop punk, as I grew up listening to bands like Sublime, but with Lit, I don’t know, something just feels off to me. Whereas bands like Sublime and Blink-182’s big appeals were their refreshing sound, as well as the relatability and humor of their lyrics, Lit just doesn’t have that same oomph that other hybrid punk groups had or continue to have to this day. There’s some okay tracks besides the first two, like “Miserable,” “Zip-Lock,” and “Lovely Day,” but tracks like, “Down,” and “Perfect One,” are incredibly weak tracks. The big appeal of the tracks I’ve mentioned is their instrumentation, especially guitar riff and drum rhythm wise. The last five tracks of the album as a whole are just filler, and bring down the album extremely.

    When I learned that Lit had made albums with multiple vastly different genres, I had a bad feeling about my enjoyment of this record. Plenty of bands have made music in various genres, such as Linkin Park, but the difference is that they did it a lot better, and their music felt way more genuine. Not to mention, most bands don’t go from making pop-punk to country. It just comes off as a soulless group doing whatever they can to be successful in the music industry. A Place In The Sun is what you get if you asked for Blink-182 on Temu, the concepts in this album have done before by much better artists, and the main thing that keeps this album from getting a lower score is how it sounds instrumentally. 

Overall Score: 5/10

Favorite Tracks: “My Own Worst Enemy,” “Four,” “Miserable,” “Lovely Day,”

Least Favorite Tracks: “Perfect One,” “Down,”

Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc5iTNVEOAg

Genres: Pop Punk/Alternative Rock/Power Pop