This is the hardest kind of CD to review because I want to like it more than I actually do, if that makes sense at all. It’s full of nice, frantic punk songs with some well thought out lyrics (dig the songs about Eric Dolphy and Laika the cosmonaut dog), but at the end of the day I think the problem is that sixteen songs is just too much for this particular album. There’s just not quite the diversity of sound needed to carry interest through the whole album. While not wide-ranging in their sound, most of the songs are pretty good, except one that’s just horrible. The song “We Play Secular Music” is just a huge turd in the middle of the CD that often manages to lose me for the rest of the album. It’s the worst kind of bad song, which is one that actually manages to get stuck in your head. The song itself sounds like an off-key rant put to an annoying riff. Anyhow, trim five or six songs off this and it is very possibly a great album. As is this is an “it’s okay.” Also, my props go out to guitarist/singer/main song writer Lance Hahn for even putting this out, because after reading the press sheet I was surprised that he even was able to find the will to keep making music after all that he’s been through. Kudos to you, sir.
–Adrian (No Idea)