Can’t you see my soul, on the record sleeve, it’s going out for sale as soon as it gets saved. (NOFX – Take Two Placebos And Call Me Lame)
After the longest hiatus of their career, self-proclaimed punk The Rolling Stones have released their newest album. It is their most intimate, serious, experimental record. Sadly, it is also their most boring to date. Yes, NOFX have grown up.
Unique humor, specific sarcasm and substantial anti-everything-something punk attitude in combination with equivocal and layered lyrics are substituted with interfamily relationships, self-critic, and self-reflection. The listener will have difficulty relating to this type of NOFX, as it departures from the band’s tradition. It’s not that NOFX were not brutal in their sincerity, it’s just that this is the pinnacle of explicitly, especially when we consider that the band did not even give interviews during the 90s.
However the work on obscure autobiography Hepatitis Bathtub is responsible for this style by pushing the boys to open up, the timing of the book’s release has left the album without its shock effect. Reading of the book’s reviews was enough to deconstruct in which direction the boys have decided to go. Ideal combination would be a book and a CD released at the same time, without the previous input.
Music album is sort of divided into three parts – the smaller one consists of hardcore punk, the bigger one is a classic NOFX, while the biggest one is pop-rock mini-musical with wide range of instruments, protagonists, roles, dialogues and sequences. Fat Mike directed the musical Home Street Home last year, so the process obviously continued on First Ditch Effort. Although they are no strangers to collaboration, this time they have invited everyone to appear on their album – from musicians to friends and children.
All of these elements escalated into a bunch of details overshadowing the sound. The sound is frequently unclear with the background noise, with the main vocal often delivered in a wrong manner.
What I liked the most is the music retrospective. It’s like NOFX decided to pay homage to their discography. Happy Father’s Day resembles Wolves In Wolves Clothing era (Everything in Moderation specifically). Sid & Nancy is the younger brother of Ronnie & Mags from Self\Entitled, while California Drought starts just as Fermented & Flailing.
So what new does this unfortunate album brings? As I have mentioned before, it is predominantly candid. Also, the album holds the highlight of the band’s career – a song called California Drought – a fantastic intro, upbeat tempo, drum solo and brilliant cynical lyrics.
This is far from the genre’s peak, far from the band’s peak, but it is still better than the most of modern music. The new NOFX album is like a non-alcoholic bear – refreshing, but not fun.
