The Descendents were definitely not like their counterparts, with their nerd-like persona and image, they were really down to earth guys. Singing about rejection, girls and subjects not discussed by their rivals, they usually stayed away from what most punk bands discussed -
politics. And damn right, while also having different lyrical subjects, they also had a different sound. Their sound was more melodic and was also a base for what pop-punk would become in the nineties. Looking back at it now, The Descendents still sound fresh, considering a lot of newer bands took their blueprints and was more successful with it and the lyrics still connect with people today (for an example of this, Shakespeare’s work was written a few hundred years ago yet the plot and storylines are still relevant today).
Front man Milo is certainly a person that doesn’t seem fit for his job, with his nerd looks, he doesn’t have the image for it but no, his vocals are truly influential and they surpass a lot of punk vocalists at the time. His voice has enough rasp and gruff to bring his lyrics out like an angry teenager. Guitar and bass are very simple but it doesn’t matter as the band simply just get in there, rock out, and then crawl away again. The drums are unique, with a vast amount of fills and regular punk beats. A song to sum this album all up is probably
Suburban Home, it’s fast, has a slightly pop edge and shows Milo’s down to earth lyrics. Of course, this isn’t a long album, only reaching about twenty-two minutes, the album is filled with short one minute to two minute songs. But damn, it’s good stuff.
Every track doesn’t really vary from each other, but it doesn’t need to. An album like this makes it impossible to have a completely new approach every song and so on. It doesn’t really need to be perfect, in fact, that’s why a lot of people enjoy it, the vocals are rough, the guitars sound joyful and the drums are obtained with constant fills and other assortments. The bass keeps the thing going, considering how small the guitar sounds. Sadly, reviewing an album like this is difficult without repeating myself but I shall anyway. This band are really different to other punk bands at the time, they aren’t scared of melodic or even having a pop edge, they constantly keep the speed of the songs up but the sad part is when they don’t, the song just gets stale and dry. Also, the whole album can get dry on repeated listens, when you have that urge to listen to it, boy, is this album hot but listening to this all the time can get on people’s nerves fast. Maybe it’s because of the stale production (though admittedly, it’s better than a lot of records at the time). This also happens with me with Dead Kennedys’ Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables, it isn’t the music that annoys me. It’s the production.
The opener is probably the most appealing, with it’s catchy hook and such, it’s a good song to get into the band. In fact all the songs are like that but tracks such as
Kabuki Girl,
Marriage and
Catalina just constantly get on my nerves. But that’s all that’s actually wrong about the album, to summarize, this is a 20 minute romp of melodic pop punk. You can’t deny not liking it, as the catchy hooks and choruses will drag you right in. If anything, it’s Milo’s vocals that can turn a person off but that’s probably just personal preference. You can’t deny the geekiness of it all!
