Review Summary: Indecipherable Lyrics!!! Rough Sounding Instrumentation!!! Excellent BTMI! Album!!!
To put it frankly, this album shouldn’t work. This rough, little gem, in all its “EP-ness”, teeming with raw energy and emotion shouldn’t be an enjoyable listen and it shouldn’t be another great release from Bomb the Music Industry! Jeff Rosenstock continues to screech out his lyrics like always and this album is a cornucopia of instrument noises all smashing into one another. However, it does work, it works brilliantly. This record was thrown together in a rushed fashion and it is everything that BTMI! and their fans could hope for.
For starters, this album is another testament to Jeff Rosenstock’s ability to write truly deep and meaningful lyrics. He then proceeds to scream them, cover them up with loud, distorted guitar and often a tantalizing hint of keyboard, and present it to the world. This may sound like a criticism, and for most bands it would be a critique, but for these guys it is actually a compliment. That’s what’s so great about this band and this album. BTMI! is able to pull off, nay, they are nearly masters of, the loud, incoherent stylings that can be found on any of their records. In truth, that is why they are so amazing and this album is a further example of that mastery.
Obviously, being an EP, this album is not the best work that we have seen from BTMI!, yet it is still worth a listen, and since all of their music is available for free on their website, everyone should give them a listen. Although this may not be their best work, it is a gem in its own right. Rosenstock’s lyrics for this album are actually really, really engaging and enjoyable to listen to, though they are sometimes indecipherable. The second track on the album, Planning My Death, is a very interesting song about how he has been thinking about his own mortality and how he wants to have an interesting death when the time comes. Of course, this song is really not a downer at all because, in the typical ska/punk-style of BTMI!, this song is played up with horns and quick, catchy guitar. Rosenstock is also able to sing his lyrics in a way that presents them as fun and catchy, rather than depressing and melancholy, which is hard to do when your song contains lines like, “I’m disappearing, no one’s saving me. I’m running to the undertow ‘cause it’s inviting.”
As stated previously, this album may not be some of the best work by BTMI! due to the fact that it is merely an EP, however this non-LP format actually lends itself in a favorable fashion to this record. This album is only seven songs in length and all of them are worthy of being allowed to flow into your ears. The album actually just keeps getting better and better, right from the beginning with, You Still Believe In Me?, a thought-provoking, well-written opening number, to All Ages Shows, another typical BTMI! song in the same vein as the opening track, right up until the final song, Struggler, a rougher, more punk-sounding song and a great way to wrap up this titillating, punk-sounding album.
At the end of the day, ADULTS!!!: SMART!!! ***HAMMERED!!! AND EXCITED BY NOTHING!!!, aside from being an amazing album title, is a well-crafted EP and an enjoyable listen for any fan of Bomb the Music Industry! or the punk/ska scene in general. These guys keep churning out good, free music, which is always a thumbs up, and they continue to do it in their own way. This album is a true illustration of their punk sensibility and DIY/f**k the world attitude.
