album of the week: 9.5

Big D And The Kids Table

The Damned, The Dumb & The Delirious

(2011)

why you'll love it: late 90's brotastic ska-punk fan service

why you'll hate it: insufferable lyrics, lacks personality

The ska-punk scene sure is an unforgiving crowd. It's a fun genre to kick off with as a teenager, but man, if a band ever decides they want to deviate a little bit, is there ever hell to play. They're like a mafia. You're always in debt to them. Big D single handedly was the next generation of ska-core ten years ago. 2009's Fluent in Stroll was that dreaded departure album (and was actually quite good), so now they have to surrender a finger and release this apology album, The Damned, The Dumb, & The Delirious.

That's the mean way of saying this is a "back to basics album". Lots of upstrokes and horn lines. It's just what the kids demand. Truth is, this isn't exactly what Big D originally sounded like. The hardcore influences are almost non existent. There's no "Apology" or "Checklist". This album sounds more like Strictly Rude (2007) than any other… which still doesn't rub me the right way after all these years. Like on Strictly Rude, Big D doesn't have much of a personality here, and is moreso just going through the motions, being a stereotype of the scene. I have little to say about the good songs on this one other than "that sure was a ska-punk song". The bad ones stand out for having horribly cliched lyrics about "rude boys", "beers", and "the radio".

David McWane's lyrics are so simple they are almost too embarrassing to bear at times. Attempts at politics ("Zombies on Wall Street") and personal stories ("My Buddy's Back") are a total joke that only result in "really? that's all you could come up with?" Maybe I'm just old and uncool now, but the worldview of these songs are so black & white I find them to be entirely unrelateable. McWane repeatedly rants how they all want to "Set Me Straight" ("the fuckers!") and he won't let them. He sounds more like my deadbeat alcoholic uncle than a defiant rebel. In the best song on here, "Good Looking", the lyrics take things too far once again with this oddly placed verse about how he's happy that he doesn't have a desk job because it would deny him the ability to go to a beach… EVER! Which is just… such a reality distortion I don't even want to begin.

I have other gripes with this album, like filler and a representation of punk that I don't agree with, but I don't want to rant. I still like ska and loud obnoxious music. There is just a whole lot fumbled with this one.