Against Me! — New Wave

If there's one punk band you can really get behind signing to a major label, it's Against Me! The guys have a likeable but still discernibly "punk" sound and a raucous (if repetitive) live show. And bringing some real punk rock to a wider audience is never a bad thing, right? So what the hell happened? New Wave is an even slower, far more boring outing than their last effort, Searching For A Former Clarity. That record suffered from repetition, yet it still had a strong start, whereas New Wave never seems to get going. Instead, you're left waiting for a climactic point while songs like "Thrash Unreal" plod along with their lame "ba-ba-ba" choruses, leaving you to try to remember why you were ever rooting for the band in the first place. It's unfortunate that the mainstream won't experience the sound they forged on their debut, Reinventing Axl Rose, because while artistic progression is usually a good thing, losing what made you a great band in the first place isn't. 

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