Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 05/16/2006
In an age where too many cookie-cutter
emo kidz and Hot Topic-oriented mall-
punk groups are slowly overpopulating the
punk scene like kudzu choking out the native greenery, bands like
the Blue Bloods are more than welcome. They seem almost necessary. Proudly older and wiser than the average teenage
punk band, though still gleefully immature enough to spit out a line like "this one's for you, you fuckin' whore" in the unapologetic
"Drink Too Much," the Blue Bloods are an old-fashioned pre-
hardcore street
punk act. Echoes of earlier bands are obvious: specifically,
Tim Baxter's raspy shout of a voice sounds more than a little like
Social Distortion's
Mike Ness, and the speedy two-guitar riffs recall any number of the second wave of U.K.
punk bands from the late '70s in the
Sham 69 or
Angelic Upstarts style. What makes
Death of a Salesman different is that there's a sense of honesty to this album that goes beyond the usual whiny
emo clichés or hoary "power to the people" street-
punk slogans, so that a song like
"Losing Streak" earns its defiant shout-along chorus in the face of adversity.
The Blue Bloods are also clearly unconcerned with looking cool: one of the album's best tracks is a completely non-ironic cover of
John Cougar Mellencamp's
"Authority Song" that strips the original of its callow teenage bravado and turns it into a rebellious pure
punk roar. Let's see
Good Charlotte try that!
~Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
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