5

Such A Great Name For A Boring Album

You know you're holding a punk CD when its length clocks in at a meagre 27 minutes and 56 seconds. The Thermal's debut album, the hilariously-titled "Fuckin A", is just one of these CDs from the music genre with the attention span of a piece of leather. Looking for other signs that'll set off the "OH NO IT'S PUNK" sirens? Try the constant, pulsing one-note basslines. Or the drum part that never changes through out the whole song, fitting itself into the song as naturally as putting a triangle shape into a square hole on those educational toys for two-year olds. Speaking of two year olds, most of them - if equipped with the proper music equipment - could make a noise that is fairly similar to the majority of punk music.

So, if you're looking for thought-provoking music, steer clear of this release. Conversely, if you're a diehard punk fan, then this band definately knows all the right moves to impress you. Or, of course, you're looking for music with no real merit, music which is packed to the rafters with, well, nothing, as it's all the same, then you can't go wrong with The Thermals - Fuckin A.

The CD could be seen more as some kind of novel, with the music representing the paper of the book, whilst the different lyrics of each song represent the different chapters of the novel, and provide the only variety in this album. The lyrics all have that smell of a "Screw it, we don't care" attitude about them - that makes sense, seeing as this is punk music after all. The vocals providing the lyrics are powerful enough, but this is probably due to the fact that the singer is only half singing anyway, using the rest of his power to shout the words out. Each song barely hits three minutes, and the only one that does, "How We Know", probably managed to get to its esteemed position through extensive use of the phrase "This is how we know/go/flow/throw/etc/etc/etc".

Nothing more can really be said; the music, when seen as music, is shoddy, but punk fans with no real desire to hear good music will enjoy this release. Oh, only one other thing could make this clearer:

Yawn.