● ● ● ◌ ◌(3/5: decent)
Pop-punk 10" vinyl (Pink Marble Vinyl)
Cruz crz 024 (1993)
I paid $9.49 for this record.

ALL, of course, is the remnants of The Descendents, who wrote strange punk songs in a wildly varying style. ALL continued that tradition and even switched vocalists a couple times. This particular record was released near the end of second vocalist Scott Reynolds' term and is a strange trio of styles.

The title track is a weird shuffling sort-of-punk song, but more like a melodic exploration of rhythms with sort of a sad song about a girl over the top. It's not particularly moving in any sort of way, but it was undoubtedly anchored in the time of "alternative" and songwriting choices that go out of their way to prove the author is the most different of them all. Butthole Surfers, Primus, and the like would appreciate the rhythmic changes and the key changes. I like the triplets right before the drum and vocal bridge, myself.

Boy Named Sue is, of course, a Shel Silverstein song that Johnny Cash made famous. The ALL version is reminiscent of the Cash version, avoiding vocal melody until occasional endings of phrases, for example. It speeds up and gets louder as it goes, finally hitting a frantic breakdown during the fight scene, and then ending chaotically and changing the last line to "If I have a son, I think I'll name him... Homer!". It's probably the highlight of the record for it's humor.

To end the 10" EP, they close with a solid So-Cal punk song with classic breakup themes and lines like "You said 'Fuck you,' I wish that I could." A breakneck pace and a couple breakdowns add some interest to this 2 minute jam, but I'm not quite inspired to sing along or anything.

I bought this record after I had purchased the Shreen EP 10", which is pretty great. Unfortunately, it just doesn't hold a candle to that release.
A1: Dot
B1: Boy Named Sue
B2: Can't Say
Last updated: 09/17/2017
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