Man, it's been a while since I've listened to records. Track 1, side A starts with a weird sample of something other and then breaks furiously into to some busy and technical guitar work that just as abruptly is taken from the speakers. Frankly, it's probably really tough to play, but it's tougher to find something to captivate my. The repeated line that sounds like "no gods! no allegiance!" gets a raised brow, but not enough to sing along and the rest is too technical to have hooks, so....

Track 2 is that 90's alternative throwback indie-emo that all the kids are into these days. Like a Dinosaur Jr. song with a vocalist from some east coast emo boy band that only does the nice parts, not the screamy parts. I think there's also lady vocals in the mix, but I'd have to listen to this side again, and I'm just not feeling it. I mean, this would be a pretty good drive-to-the-beach song near sunset to meet up with some folks to have a bonfire or something, but I'm ready for the chilled sadness of fall, not the melancholy golden rays of summer sun. Give me something in-between these first two tracks and I might be more stoked. So far, side A is a bust.

So, side B, then. Boys and Sex is, of course, a dude band. If you were hoping for some Indian Summer or other such gritty early screamy stuff, this is your business. The guitar intro is fantastic and then the low-in-the-mix strained white boy vocals kick in and it seems to let the buoyancy out of the room. I wanted the perfect, heartfelt vocals to complement the interesting melody of the guitar, but it is like one guy wants tacos and the other wants burgers and they just can't agree on what the band should sound like.

Algernon Cadwallader (the real reason I paid too much for this) closes out the comp with a Promise-Ring inspired pop song from the group that starts fabulously with a couple mis-starts and ends just as sloppily after the sing-along chorus with the same lyrics as the song title. It's a fun closer but this collection is just too much like a playlist set on shuffle and the individual songs are not quite enough to get me to break through my old-man jaded attitude to get pumped. This is definitely a shelf copy for me, not a play copy. Ah well!

If you like this review, you can buy me a coffee.