My (Old) CDs - Strung Out - Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues

Talk about one of those types of punk rock albums that captures a feeling, an essence of angst masked in wacky tight melodies, breakneck pacing, and straight and true lyrics. This album is full of tracks that really pump you up - the adrenaline levels are a product of literally how quick the band pulls off guitar riff after riff, how each song seems to want to break some sort of speed record. What makes it tick is you can clearly hear how tight the drumming is, every fourth taps and you think, 'this drummer must be on an insane caffeine regimen'.

Strung Out is one of those bands that goes beyond even what you would imagine a fast tempo would be, they sort of blast through your notion of cut-time and fill it with musical vocals and what I can only describe as wacky hooks that always seem to land at the right moment and never go off the rails surprisingly. You should be bouncing around the room with every song on this or any of their albums, some tracks feeling like the equivalent of flailing nonsensically with a giant smile on your face.

I'm not as much of a fan of their metal-tinged leanings but that is just a personal preference - not to say that a track like "Bring Out Your Dead" is not a good song, just not my favorite style from them.

This album has one of my all time songs - "Wrong Side of the Tracks". There's so much I can say - listening to the song now for the first time in a while, I reminisce of when I was 15 and thought I could conquer anything by being smart, a smart-ass, and wearing tall socks and long shorts. Reckless abandon with just enough responsible thought to always produce one of two outcomes (a big win or a small embarrassing loss) - that is how to live in suburbia right? What else are you going to do, a strip mall tour for the umpteenth time?

Listen to this song, sing it in the mirror, and point at yourself, singing the lyrics indicatively, leaning into your image as if you had a mic stand.....