I guess the best way to describe the 255s is “punk’n’roll” as much as I hate that term and try, at times poorly, to avoid it. There is definitely a pop punk sensibility to their two songs on this record, but that term doesn’t quite do them justice. In the end, this is definitely above-average rock’n’roll, but it’s not over-the-top awesome. The State Lottery, on the other hand, has a more distinctive sound. Their song is pretty much straight-up rock’n’roll with a ‘70s sensibility to the rhythm and sound, including an annoyingly overplayed saxophone. I could see the Bay City Rollers playing something like this with Clarence Clemmons as a guest musician. While I don’t hate the song anymore, nor am I all that keen about it yet—it still strikes me as sounding like the crap from the ‘70s that gets replayed for the sake of nostalgia rather than a true sense of worth.
–Eric Carlson (All In Vinyl, allinvinyl.com)