Labels: Fueled by Ramen
Review by: Ian Cavell
Inspirational punk-rock with a real unified spirit. ‘Bitter Tongues’ has been a regular fixture on my CD player this week and as I went along I jotted down some of the best songs so I could mention them in the review. But now its Monday afternoon and its just occured to me that I’ve written down virtually every track. It sounds even more impressive when you consider that this CD contains 19 songs and clocks in at 65+ minutes.
Ann Beretta strike me as a more melodic Avail and there some songs (Dirty Faces, MCA) that really remind me of the earlier Rancid stuff. Tracks such as ‘Shovel’, ‘Hate Mail’ and ‘FM’ are just plain honest, melodic (yet intense) punk-rock and down right awesome.
Its not all melodic punk however. Ann Beretta stray from that path on occasions – and when they do the results are fucking awesome. ‘Bottlecaps’ with its acoustic guitar lead-in and powerful vocals is quite fantastic while ‘Baker St.’ throws a harmonica (?!?) into the fray. And when you end an album with ‘Efforts’ and ‘Crash’, two of the most uplifting songs you’re likely to hear this year… Well, you can give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done because ‘Bitter Tongues’ is an outstanding record.