I know the Queers are a punk rock institution, and I know that this being a reissue of their first full length should probably make it a classic, but no matter how much I listen to it, nothing sticks out other than “Goodbye California,” and “Burger King Queen.” Those two songs are great chunks of pop punk goodness. The rest just feels like non-descript Ramones-core, and that’s that I love the Ramones. As a bonus on the reissue, there are also five demo songs on here that were partially engineered by Jimmy Miller, who apparently worked with the Rolling Stones at some point. The highly entertaining liner notes actually talk about that a lot, among other stuff. The only song on here that I would actually say is bad is “Gay Boy,” which is plodding and listless (and on here in two versions). If “Goodbye California” and “Burger King Queen” were a single, I would call it a classic, but as a whole this album is pretty much take it or leave it for me.
–Adrian (Asian Man)