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Album REVIEWS BY JOHN B. MOORE
Reviews
Jay Allen And The Archcriminals Fun Is Fun, The Trilogy Is Done (Rum Bar Records) Boston punk/garage rocker Jay Allen and his band are keeping The Ramones flame burning bright on their latest effort as they carry that “1, 2, 3, 4” pop punk torch into another decade. Fun Is Fun, The Trilogy Is Done, manages to be even catchier than their debut, Fun Is Fun, But You’ve Got To be F*%kin’ Kidding Me. Across eight songs, each hovering around the three-minute mark, Allen’s gruff vocals – backed by a thick layer of distorted guitar and solid drumming – deliver singalong choruses that stay with you like a homemade stick and poke tattoo. The rambling unpolished charm of the music is simply undeniable. The record’s opening track, “Cry A Little Tear,” is a punk rock doo wop sob story with Boston’s Emily Grogan guesting on vocals. Elsewhere, “Grew Some Stones” is the album’s zenith, as ridiculously fun as it is immature. The whiplash speed and intensity of Fun Is Fun, The Trilogy Is Done and the memorable goofiness of the lyrics serve as an ideal diversion to the shit show that 2020 has become; The perfect distraction to a world in flames. Sadly, it’s over after just 30 minutes after it starts, so definitely worth listening to this one repeat for a few times.
Ryan Allen Song Snacks Vol. 1 (Self-Released) Ryan Allen’s brilliant and brilliantly massive 20-track surprise album, Song Snacks Vol. 1 was recorded at home with little more than an amp, a few guitars and some software, captures Allen during a particular prolific peak of creativity. He references some of the indie home recording classics like The Wrens’ The Meadowlands and Guided By Voices’ Alien Lanes, and like those albums there is a lot of music to wade through. Impressively, despite its size there is still a cohesive vibe to this collection. The sound is not that far removed from the power pop, punk slathered music he puts out with his full band Extra Arms. And the bulk of the tracks here are around one-to-two minutes long, so it’s not nearly as intimidating as it looks. The opening song, “Inventing Sports,” with its ringing guitars and Allen’s soaring vocals is pretty indicative of what follows. And surprisingly given the uncertainty of what’s happening in the world right now, from societal strife to global health concerns, the record manages to be void of fear and gloom and serves as a welcoming distraction with songs about wizards, ghosts and psychics. Coming less than a year after Extra Arms’ last record, this album was certainly unexpected, but now that it’s here I couldn’t imagine getting through the summer without it.
NOFX/Frank Turner West Coast Vs. Wessex (Fat Wreck Chords) West Coast Vs. Wessex finds California’s NOFX covering five songs from Turner’s catalogue and the beloved English folk punk playing five from NOFX’s stash. Fat Mike and his boys cover two of Turner’s best known songs, “Thatcher Fucked The Kids,” “Ballad Of Me And My Friends,” along with “Substitute,” “Worse Things Happen At Sea,” and the brilliant atheist anthem “Glory Hallelujah” and manage to completely remake every track thanks to distorted guitars and Mike’s remarkably endearing monotone whine. In particular, the political “Thatcher Fucked The Kids,” is reinvented into a stellar two-tone ska number, complete with a faux Britishaccented backup vocal. And it should come as no surprise to anybody that’s been following Turner’s career that he does a remarkable job covering NOFX, given his previous life fronting the hardcore band Million Dead. He also covered NOFX’s “Linoleum” several years ago on his rarities album The Second Three Years. Turner flawlessly tackles “Scavenger Type,” “Bob,” “Eat The Meek,” “Perfect Government,” and a dark version of “Falling In Love,” (the only track here that doesn’t really live up to the rest). Like NOFX, Turner’s take on his tracks is impressively original, painting them with his own identity. “Bob,” for example, slowed down slightly and propped up with acoustic guitars, piano, subtle drumming and harmonica is almost unrecognizable. West Coast Vs. Wessex works, in part, because both NOFX and Turner have strong identifiable sounds that are hard to replicate without coming off as rip offs. So, handing over their songs to someone as strongly unique makes this split so wildly compelling.
The Psychedelic Furs Made of Rain (Cooking Vinyl) It seems almost unreal that it’s been 29 years since The Psychedelic Furs last put out an albumsworth of all new material. Perhaps it’s because the band has been almost ubiquitous over the past decade. After sitting out a big chunk of the ‘90s the band reformed in the early aughts and have been touring every few years ever since – playing some of their best shows in their decades-long career. Or maybe it’s because a slew of younger bands took liberal amounts of inspiration from them and have managed to make careers out of sounding like The Psychedelic Furs. Regardless, for the first time since 1991’s The World Outside, the band has put out a new studio LP and Made of Rain is their best album since the seminal Talk, Talk, Talk in the early ‘80s. Across a dozen tracks the band reaffirms why they were one of the most important post-punk British bands to conquer America (thanks in big part to John Hughes). From the opening track, “The Boy Who Invented Rock & Roll,” with Richard Butler’s emotionally-charged vocals competing over a scrum of distorted guitar, synth lines and squawking horns, it’s clear the band is not trying to reinvent themselves for a newer audience, rather they are simply reclaiming their status as musical innovators, pioneers of alternative rock, long before the genre had a name.
