June 23, 2009

Album review: Rancid - 'Let The Dominos Fall'

All the tattoos in the world don't make you hard

4 / 10 Rancid have always been puzzling in the way they’ve chosen to combine their anarchist viewpoint with the most candy-assed dude-punk you’ve ever heard. I mean, really, if you take them away from Green Day and place them next to The Clash, it’s a joke. If you leave them in their little cartoon world then this isn’t a bad album – ‘East Bay Night’ and ‘This Place’ are perfectly likeable rabble-rousing pop-punk – though purists may be alarmed by a lurch into country (‘Civilian Ways’, pretty much like barf on a turd). They appear to be sincere in their sloganeering so you’ve got to admire them, but, really, the message of a song like ‘New Orleans’ gets seriously undermined by the shiny Busted balloon it’s caught inside.

Martin Robinson

Click here to get your copy of Rancid's 'When The Dominos Fall' from the Rough Trade shop