Fifteen's tirades against abusive parents, music business realities, fascism, environmental destruction, and religion get above-average musical treatments on the group's one and only Cool Guy Records release,
Extra Medium Kickball All-Star. If
Jeff Ott's hyper-progressive lyrics were given a metaphor or two -- if only to break up the single-mindedness of his "poetic" output -- things would work out even better. But the singer/guitarist sounds better than ever despite all of his issues. Perhaps it's the phonetics, but for some reason the same old messages sound almost fresh on highlights like "Over and Over" and "Chris' Song." The latter wasn't written by
Ott, but the tone won't exactly strike
Fifteen fans as unfamiliar. A strong effort from the group,
Extra Medium Kickball All-Star is one of the best from
Ott and company. ~ Vincent Jeffries