94. Mclusky - Mclusky Do Dallas (2002)

I still find it hard to think of this record as anything more than an average punk record with better one-liners and song titles than most ("The World Loves Us And Is Our Bitch" is my favorite), but if you like simple punk rock, you could hardly do worse. Even though the band is British they largely avoid the "snotty British punk" thing that capsizes the Libertines and the Arctic Monkeys (and this album is certainly better than anything those two bands have released). The problem is that everything is so punishingly simple and the band doesn't have enough personality to transcend their simplicity, the way the Ramones did. Also, the Ramones were better songwriters--there are good riffs here, sure, but the only good song to be found is the near-classic "To Hell With Good Intentions," which stands astride the rest of the album like the proverbial colossus and makes you realize exactly how middling the rest of it is. There's about half the intensity and songwriting skill here than on the decade's best punk record, Jay Reatard's Blood Visions. Not bad by a long shot, but maybe it's just the dearth of great punk music in the 00s that made this album stand out, rather than any truly classic qualities.

MY RATING: 6.4

Mclusky - "Collagen Rock"