Swedish prim-punk! Tillbaka Till Wittenberg enshrines fine trash without falling prey to misguided blues attempts, making this already a winner by Euro g-word punk standards. Six crunchy barbs, nary a dud in sight, including some vague swipe at JACK AND THE RIPPERS. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every Levande Begravd release I’ve encountered, this being no exception. Ace crap for your bombed brain.
Well, we’ve certainly got a contender for dumbest release of 2021 on our hands. Look, I’m usually of a “the dumber, the better” mindset, but I’m having trouble getting on board with this one. MEN & HEALTH are a trio out of Copenhagen who take the ultra-minimalism of the URINALS, back it with a really cheap-sounding drum machine track Á la COLLEEN GREEN, then sing songs about giving heroin to people on reality TV or being cold or whatever. I didn’t quite hate it, but I just kept wishing it sounded more like either of the records that Jeff Mahannah put out in the past few years (as MUZZY or I GET MYNZE). They hit the dumb/funny/catchy sweet spot on the track “Right On!”, but otherwise I just found this particular combination of lyrics and the vocals super grating (they got a good chuckle out of me by including a lyric sheet, though). Anyway, don’t listen to my gripes too much—this feels like a record I could come around on eventually. So, give it a listen…but only if you’re into the dumbest of punk.
The cover art is somewhere between prison art and high school drawing competition: a centaur straddles a police car as two puzzled police officers point their weapons his way. This disc contains some choice dollar store guitar ’n’ keyboard punk, with nods to KBD klassics. Sneering Danish synth punk that errs on the side of the sick with songs about mechanical human attributes from the womb to the tomb. If you are a Florida’s Dying mailorder freak, this is definitely callin’ your number.
