Rotterdam's finest (and who are you to say otherwise?) appear to be attempting to recast Screeching Weasel's Wiggle in their own 21st Century image (or perhaps merely for King & Country), and bearing in mind that the elapsed time between That and This is now in excess of a full decade, that's not the fool's quest one might initially dismiss it as. However, whilst Wiggle's greatest strength of substance was its more-or-less nuts-on depiction of twentysomething disillusionment 'n' survival and its greatest strength of structure was shaking up its own "Crying in My Beer" status quo at the two-thirds-thru mark with a pair of punk-and-nothing-but crankers (the Teenage Head cover and "Automatic Rejector"), The Buzz Electric, seemingly by its own admission, presents its own style AS the primary stuff of its substance (i.e., pop-punk for pop-punk's sake), and its sole stylistic shakeup two-thirds of the way in is a "Too Many Twinkies"/"I Can't Stop Farting" Queers type number, "Too Many Backpacks at the Show." I mean, essentially, the Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice is in place, but the whole concoction still seems a bit scant on the Element X? ? and like most native English speakers, i continue to maintain the possibly ridiculously naive viewpoint that European bands would be capable of creating a much more effective Rock'n'Roll Powerpuff? Girl if they sang at least portions of each song in their native tongue. They'd be number Ain with a bullet! BEST SONG: "Almost Summer" BEST SONG TITLE: "Too Many Backpacks at the Show" FANTASTIC AMAZING TRIVIA FACT: Since, in every other picture of Jerry Hormone i have, he's either kissing our bass player or grabbing my crotch with his pants around his knees, i was very enheartened to see him depicted in the company of females herein.
–norb (Stardumb)