The first thing you'll notice about this album is the uncanny degree to which singer and guitarist Malcolm Bauld sounds like
Joe Strummer; the second thing you'll notice is how much the rest of the band sounds like the other members of
the Clash. And yes, that's a compliment, seeing as how
the Clash were, you know, the greatest rock & roll band of all time. It's also a compliment because although their overall sound owes quite a bit to the 1970s British punk scene,
the Frenetics' songs are original and fresh-sounding, and the balance they strike between aggressive guitar attack and giddy melody is perfect. It all comes together best on "Journalist," which fairly soars on its combination of driving guitars and anguished, backward-looking lyrics. "Power Outages at the Pool" is almost as good, in pretty much the same ways. Others impress by harking back to some of the band's other influences -- like
the Cure ("I Can't Even Say Goodnight") and
Mission of Burma ("No Saturday Night"). Or by bringing in what is possibly the most subtly deployed horn section in the history of punk rock (on the glorious "Running Up"). This is an album the band should brag about and that you should play for all your friends. ~ Rick Anderson