In 2004 a friend and colleague heard about my writing prowess and asked me to pen a couple of album reviews for a high-profile music website he was involved with. This is the first of those reviews for the Descendents album Cool to be you.
Review: Descendents – Cool to be you
More “lovelorn anthems” from original punk-pop godfathers the Descendents
Considering its been eight years since so-cal punk originators the Descendents last full length release, expectations are pretty high for “Cool to be you”, but after listening to it, you’ve got to wonder what where they doing all that time? Whilst this is indeed a fine record and worthy of inclusion in their discography it’s not really the fully fledged effort of a band that have been around for 26 years! Having said that there are some outstanding and dare I say “grown-up” songs on this album, but not enough to justify the time off.
This is most certainly an album of two halves. The first half is stunning, including the single “Nothing with you”, whereas the second is a poor miss-match of distinctly average tracks. There is a real sense of growth and maturity to be found on early tracks like “Dreams” and “Cool to be you” that is lacking in the later half, summed up by “Mass Nerder”, I mean what the hell is a Bio-chemist in his 40’s doing singing about “Kicking (peoples) asses in class”!
It’s by no means a completely cut and dry affair though, the first half is spoiled somewhat by “Blast Off” an awful track worthy only of Offspring, whilst the second is saved by the fantastic “One More Day”. Indeed the album closer “Dry Spell” is an incredible punk love song and adds weight to the Descendents claim to the title of “Kings of the lovelorn anthem”. Trouble is most of the later tracks employ the same kind of jumping time signatures started years ago on “Original Me” and rather than the clever coming together of ideas you’d hope for, they form more of an in-coherent mess than well thought out punk songs.
If you’re a hardened fan or are coming to the Descendents fresh then this is a worthwhile purchase, for those hoping for something more from these seasoned veterans you may well be disappointed.
