Blue Skies, Broken Hearts...Next 12 Exits,
The AtarisI could talk for days about how great The Ataris are. But you lucky people will be spared. I will just say that this album is an absolute must in any punk collection.
For anyone unfamiliar with the work of Kris Roe, here is a quick guide. Honest, heartfelt lyrics written by a guy who is pretty unlucky in love, put to emo/pop-punk. It's quite possibly the soundtrack to any teenager's life.
The first 8 songs are amazing. Their high standards do drop slightly towards the end, but in truth it doesn't matter. 'Blue Skies...' is just so good, it's more than likely that you'll get to track 4 and then go back to the beginning to listen again.
The Bill and Ted related 'San Dimas High School Football Rules,' as featured on one of the popular Fat samplers, is one of the greatest songs ever written. As catchy as syphillis, there's something very wrong with you if you're not singing along by the end.
Lyrically, The Ataris are better than nearly every band in the world ever. Anyone (and everyone) writes songs about girls these days, but The Ataris are head and shoulders above everybody else. At times desperate ("I only wish that this could be, just dump your boyfriend and go out with me, I swear I'll treat you like a queen"); at times tongue-in-cheek ("Why do I never seem to learn, that love is wrong and girls are fucking evil?"); always painstakingly honest ("I guess it just wasn't meant to be, I quit pretending you were in love with me.")
At times they do borrow heavily from the godfathers of pop-punk The Descendents; '1*15*96' and 'Your Boyfriend Sucks' would probably fit quite nicely onto 'Everything Sucks,' if you replaced Kris' vocal with Milo. But The Ataris have enough in their own arsenal to blow the contenders and critics way out of the water.
If you only ever buy one more emo/pop-punk CD, make it this. The Ataris have written the soundtrack to your life, you just maybe don't realise it yet. Buy this album, I promise you, you will not regret it.
Paul Savage
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