Finally! After waiting and waiting, the second Baseball Furies album is available to the public. Their first LP, Greater Than Ever, is one of the best punk rock albums of the past decade (making it, by extension, one of the best albums of the past decade, period) and if you don’t have it, then you, sir, are missing out on a band that sounds like they’re going to crash through the wall at any moment. With this new album, there’s been a shift. It’s a little darker, with fewer blatant pop hooks but with a more rounded-out catchiness. The breakneck pace of the first album has been slowed, and it sounds a little less spiteful. The vocals are less slurred. I’m sure that description makes this sound like a letdown, but it isn’t. You see, they do this thing, I think it’s called taking risks instead of treading over the same ground, which is something that most punk bands don’t do, especially bands that play this kind of trashy garage rock. They still sound distinctly like the Baseball Furies but it’s an expansion on that sound. It’s a great album by a great band, a band that could never be accused of making the same record over and over again.
–josh (Big Neck)