Posted on: September 24, 2010 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Mess Up The Mess uses the same font on their album as TBS does during a number of their bumpers. I don’t know why I said that, but it seems to be as random as the band’s output on “You Remind Me Of Summer Vacation”. The first track on this disc is “Lawn Chair Meet Balloon”, and the track seems to blend together classic punk (Ramones), surf music, and hints of the B-52s to create something that is new and exciting.

The production makes ”Lawn Chair Meet Balloon” not shine as brightly as it could (the levels during the track seem to all bury themselves, instead of varying at different parts of the track), but the track is still something that will bounce around listeners’ heads for days, weeks, or months to come. Most of the disc’s tracks end well before the three minute mark. This is good for the style of music that Mess Up The Mess Play, as while the tracks are very compelling on their own, the fact that the tracks rely on a high amount of repetition means that longer tracks would be much harder for individuals to swallow. The tracks vary between each other; “Esprit de l’Escalier” has a more of a Susanne Vega-type of sound, while the instrumentation, while still having the overall punk sound to things, seem to have a more alternative (nineties) style to it.

There is a much harder sound present during “You’re Not My (Myers-Briggs) Type”; this track does have Mess Up The Mess come back to their general sound, but there is a much more hardcore punk (Southern California) sound that does well in breaking up the disc’s monotony. With 14 tracks, Mess Up The Mess needs these types of tracks to keep individuals on the same page; the inclusion of a guitar solo is just one more reason hat individuals will stick with “You Remind Me Of Summer Vacation”. The band has high amounts of energy throughout the entirety of this album, but with 14 tracks (even at the shorter runtimes that Mess Up The Mess have), the disc feels like it drags on during songs like “20 Questions” and “Ton of Bricks”. If the band could cut back on the number of tracks on their next album, the energy with which they exit the album would be higher, and if the album is short enough, listeners will be clamoring for the next little bit of music that Mess Up The Mess would grace themselves with.

Top Tracks: So Long Suckers, F-bomb

Rating: 5.3/10

Mess Up The Mess – You Remind Me Of Summer Vacation / 2006 Paroxysm / 14 Tracks / http://www.messupthemess.com / http://www.paroxysmrecords.com / Reviewed 31 April 2007

[JMcQ]

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