Uncle Critic

Thanks to the Hextalls we’ve got our first great pop punk album of 2010! The Hextalls bust in your face with an album full of booze, hockey, video games, and just in general awesomeness. The only thing I don’t like about this album is the intro/outro of the first song “I’m a Recluse!” I’ll admit I was a bit scared when I first heard it but the song quickly settled into something I enjoy. This band is a constant for fun songs and this album is no exception, I actually laughed out loud the first time I heard “My Dad vs Shina Twain”. “Pacman” is a great song, about…PACMAN! Like this song or you’re a shitty person. The next couple of songs are all fun in different ways, “Rally” is short and to the point, I love it. Coming up after that we finally get our first hockey reference, it took six fucking songs but that’s fine because it was worth the wait, I support any anti-New York song. “The Final Countdown II” the most epic song title on the album, it’s not what you think it is. The Hextalls also know how to give the lady’s what they want, power ballad. Ok maybe the name isn’t totally descriptive, but it’s a power ballad Hextalls style. Enough of that sappy stuff through, let’s get back to video games. Wait a minute “My Xbox Got the Red Ring of Death” isn’t actually about an xbox…or is it? You be the judge. “I’m an Alcoholic!” I might have to adopt as my new personal anthem, drinking, not wanting to go to work, these things interest me in my daily life. “Diaper Change”, quick, catchy, it’ll be stuck in your head soon. After that you might be thinking you’ve probably hit all the best stuff on the album so far. You might also think “hm, the album cover has an arcade machine on the cover but I’ve only heard a couple video games so far”, enter “We’re the Castle Crashers” or as I like to call it, the best song on the album. If you’ve played the game you’re already running through it in your head, this song is almost as great as the game is. After that it seems the band got tried of having songs that weren’t named after people, because that’s what we get for the next four in a row. But that’s cool songs about people are always fun, especially “Tina Turner”. Also among the ‘songs that have people names’ I want to give a shout out to “Kristine” because that chick sounds awesome, hit me up. Closing out the album is a sixteen second song that’s perfect to close out a Hextalls album.

1. I’m a Recluse!
2. My Dad vs Shania Twain
3. Pacman
4. I Met Her At the Ropetow
5. Rally
6. I Don’t Wanna be a New York Ranger
7. The Final Countdown II
8. Generic Mid-Record Power Ballad
9. My Xbox Got the Red Ring of Death
10. I’m an Alcoholic!
11. Diaper Change
12. We’re the Castle Crashers
13. Bryan Adams
14. Tina Turner
15. Kristine
16. Mark Wilson
17. I’m Hiding Your Car Keys In the Garbage

Get it from The Hextalls HERE

Get Get Smashed from Amazon HERE

Filed under: Music, Pop Punk, Punk, Reviews | Tagged: Castle Crashers, Hextalls, hockey, Pacman, pop punk, poppunk, punk, records, review, Reviews, video games | Leave a Comment »