Wishful Thinking (Australian band)

Wishful Thinking (or Wishful) were an Australian three-piece pop-punk band which formed in Tasmania in 1998 and disbanded in 2006. The line-up included Alistair Elkins on bass guitar, Carl Jackson on lead vocals and Leigh Thompson on drums. In 2002 Carlos Echeverria was replaced by Elkins on bass guitar. Carl's brother Lachlan Jackson was the bassist in the original lineup (along with a handful of drummers) before they moved to Melbourne. They were one of Australia's "buzz" punk/pop acts and were signed to Boomtown Records. Wishful Thinking's musical style was pop punk and followed in the style of such bands like Blink 182 and New Found Glory.

Contents

• Discography
• Songs
• References

Wishful Thinking shared stages and toured with such bands, including Millencolin, MXPX, Kisschasy, Area-7, Gyroscope, All Star United, Relient K, The O.C. Supertones, and Antiskeptic.

Wishful Thinking also had rotation on the radio stations Triple M and Triple J, with their single 'I Don't Need You' which was released in 2003 and their single 'The Day You Went Away' in 2004.

Tim Cashmere of Undercover News reviewed their debut album, Standing Still (2003); he described them as a "Christian-punk act" and felt the album was "none-too-shabby, albeit none-too-original either... The god-fearing punk beats of Wishful Thinking makes an interesting point of difference." Ben Seifu of vibewire.net noticed that "the production is quite professional without being too smooth or processed. The drums in particular are captured reasonably well. But beyond that Standing Still is pretty standard pop punk stuff." Jasper Lee of Oz Music Project opined that it "oozes of punk pop goodness that echoes heroes of said genre such as MXPX. The band's strength lies in their combination of consistent punk power chords with a lyrical depth underpinning their spiritual beliefs."

Steph Brincat of Oz Music Project reviewed the group's second album, Kicking Goals, Banging Gongs & High Five All Round, rating it at four out of five due to the "classic pop-punk sound that we have all come to know and love, without making it sound horrible and generic, and I assure you that I am not being sarcastic or ironic. The music is tight and although it doesn’t stray from the usual pop-punk recipe of repetitive yet catchy bass, guitar and drum explosion, there is variation in their tunes such as interesting little guitar licks and bass solos."

The band reformed for a once-off show in August 2013 at the Adelaide Uni Bar with S.T.R.