We here at Punktastic each have personal tastes that are unavoidable. We all have particular bands that we like and particular styles of music that get us going, but that’s not to say that these are firmly rigid and inflexible. Usually I love fast, dirty street punk that’s as complex as it is fashionable – i.e. not at all. That’s exactly what this release is, but surprisingly enough, it’s crap.
When people who don’t know much about a certain type of music hear two different bands they usually think it’s pretty much indistinguishable – I know I can’t tell the difference between Busted and Taking Back Sunday, for example – and it’s fairly true for The Cut-Offs. What they do isn’t that far removed from bands like Cock Sparrer, or the Cro-Mags (without the hardcore edge), or Sham 69 to be honest. But what sets bands out from the pack (and this goes for any genre) is their ability to innovate within their particular field, and sadly this lot don’t even try.
Pick a track, any track – I guarantee it’ll sound exactly the same as any other. From the dull opener ‘Confused’ right through variously dull tracks that have dull subject matter and dull, recycled riffs it just gets frustrating listening to this album. True, ‘Longway’ is a good track with a nicely simply riff that is not overplayed, and ‘Time Goes By’ is fairly inoffensive but it just all gets repetitive.
They’re not helped much with their lyrical subject matter which ranges from such fascinating topics as not liking work to liking beer – if I wanted to hear tales of boredom and woe regarding the every-day existence of a group of seemingly large men I’d go to AA meetings. It’s as if the band have taken a few good ideas and flogged them to death without trying their collective hand at something a bit different. It’s a shame because I really do like this kind of music but the blatant repetitiveness and lack of imagination kneecaps Fat, Drunk and Angry before it’s even got out of bed.
Ben