Hailing from New Jersey in the era when the straight-edge hardcore scene was reaching overbearing levels of preachiness,
Crucial Youth parodied the over the top dogma, positivity, and purity of some of the more extreme straight-edge ideology. Not content to stop at the alcohol-, drug-, nicotine-, and promiscuity-free lifestyle espoused by
Minor Threat,
Youth of Today,
Gorilla Biscuits and the like,
Crucial Youth preached the values of brushing your teeth, eating from the four food groups, and even rewinding your rented video cassettes on tracks like "Positive Dental Outlook," and even basic self-preservation on "Cross at the Green (Not in Between)." A total mockery of how close to either fascism or squareness the straight-edge lifestyle was,
The Posi-Machine makes the mistake of being a really solid hardcore record, with well-crafted and clearly studied blasts of posi-punk almost good enough to detract from the hilarious farcical lyrics. ~ Fred Thomas