Labels: 86’d Records and Fanzine
Review by: Michael Stewart
While music should be the focus of record reviewing, let this be said “” this is one
of the most beautifully packaged releases you are likely to come across this year,
and for that reason it must come recommended. Mercifully the tunes are pretty good
too. Stating that Rations play “gruff punk’ will no doubt interest the committed
and repel the detractors in equal measure, and the customary traces of Dillinger
Four, Jawbreaker and most of No Idea Records output are all over this disc. It
might, though, be doing the band a little disservice, because there is an endearing
haphazardness and direct political anger that has been absent from a lot of the more
recent offerings made by the aforementioned Gainesville label. This haphazardness
occasionally tips over into giving the EP more of a compilation feel than one of an
intended piece, but it also recalls earlier luminaries like Crimpshrine and Fifteen, and
that’s no bad thing.