Labels: Fat Wreck Chords
Review by: Ian Cavell
This is one very, very classy album. I’ve been playing it all week and I’ve gotta say – I love it to bits. Its got that lovely ‘big’ production and a refreshing blend of styles. From the hardcore offerings (‘Without Anger’, ‘Waste’ and ‘State Control’) to the more Fat sounding songs (‘Salt’ and ‘Understood’), Good Riddance excel. They even slip in a bit of rock into more melodic songs such as ‘Jeannie’ and ‘Not With Him’ which are just sublime and sound so perfect after the quick fire bursts of hardcore that they inevitably follow. The obligatory punk-rock cover is a KISS song which would explain why one of the guys from Dagobah kept bellowing “play some KISS” when Good Riddance played in Leicester last week.
Lyrically this band have got a brain behind the pen as they tackle important subject matters such as vegetarianism (‘Waste’) and violence at gigs (‘Salt’) with genuine emotion. Thought provoking, musically varied and pretty damn excellent. Your average Fat Wreck band Good Riddance are not.