Belvedere Jehosophat - Saturday, 5 July, 2003 - Print Version
I bought these two albums concurrently and I will review them as such.
Subhumans – The Day The Country Died
A.K.A. the better of the two.
I almost didn’t buy this album on account of the cover. It’s not that I would ever discriminate against a CD cause it a had a lame cover but in this case the cover looked kinda 80’s and I was worried that that would be reflected in the music within.
After hearing the first song, however, I was sold. The first song is called All Gone Dead, it starts with what sounds like wind blowing and then kicks into a nice little punk beat (not quite Minor Threat hardcore, not quite Sex Pistols punk).
The song ends - and this is what essentially sold me – with the line “Who needs fucking war?” Well, he’s right, you know, who does need fucking war? I figured that a band that was so ready to denounce war would a) be likely to write a bunch of songs that I could relate to and enjoy, and b) be worthy of my money.
The music doesn’t often stray from that punk/hardcore pace but the songs themselves are different enough to be easily discernable.
The lyrics in this album exist more in the realm of rhetoric, producing some well-aimed barbs at the ‘system’, ‘big brother’, etc. They’re pretty good lyrics, though not as clever as those written by the Dead Kennedys and not as unrelenting as the (this next bit is stolen) leave-no-stone-unturned approach of Crass.
I try not to pay over 20 bucks for punk CDs; this isn’t out of prudence but out of principle. This particular CD cost me $31.95, well worth the 35 something minutes of excellent music contained within.
Also, the Subhumans also came with a crack in the CD case, now, when this happens, I usually change the case when I get home but, for some reason, it seemed appropriate that, in this case, it was better in that case.
Descendents – Milo Goes To College
A.K.A. the lesser of the two.
Understand: I don’t like my punk being about girls and stuff like that, I prefer it to be political. I thought, from what I’d heard in a friend’s car, that the earlier Descendents stuff would be about weightier stuff than unrequited love.
See: I had heard a song called Suburban Home, which is an excellent little number in which the singer states “I want to be stereotyped/I want to be classified,” and goes on to say, sarcastically, how he wants a suburban home. Now, I figured that the songs on this particular album would deal with that sort of social commentary. No such luck as, unfortunately, a good number of the songs are about girls; as a result, I found it harder to relate to them.
Sometimes the lyrics can also seem a little juvenile. For example, there’s a song about how the singer hates his parents called, fittingly enough, Parents. While I can understand these lyrics (not personally, of course, my parents are saints) the song’s chorus includes the lines “I’m a boy and not a toy/I will kill and I will destroy.” Kill what? Destroy what? Is that what boys do? It just seems kind of sophomoric.
Incidentally, as far as songs about girls go, it’s not that I don’t have my own problems, it’s just that it’s such a common lyrical theme that I find it boring.
The music itself is very pop punk, but in a good sense – it reminds me, for the sake of comparison, somewhat of Green Day’s Dookie. The music is very good, though sometimes it leans a little too much towards the ‘pop’ side of the equation.
This CD cost me $32.95; $32.95 is a little steep, though it was probably worth about 20 bucks.
P.S. the Sex Pistols suck.
Finagle with our bagel and keep a fresh and up-to-date eyeball on our latest reviews, articles and filthy somesuch. Mmm doughy.
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