Cerebral Ballzy have been hailed as the new kings of punk, real punk, since their 2011 self-titled debut, an album which landed the band festival slots and tours across the globe, in turn drawing attention to the group for their uncompromising and riotous live performances. One individual attracted to the character of this five-piece punk rock machine was Julian Casablancas of The Strokes and Cult Records, under whom the band have gone on to release this album. This has led to a subtle change in the tone of the output of the group, with an apparent intention to bring ‘more melody, more ideas, more thought’ to the table for this release. That said, punk rock and hardcore still very much take the centre stage, they haven’t changed too much.
The album totals roughly 26 minutes of run-time which, despite being 7 minutes and only one song longer than their first album, is a very short album. Songs like Lonely In America, only 3 minutes in length, feel extremely long. This is down to the speed of tracks like Speed Wobbles, managing to pack a ridiculous amount of music into only a minute. The album is as energetic and punchy as the first, however the promised melody is definitely present. For example, tracks like Fake I.D. open with incredible riffs before kicking into all out brutality. Although this results in the loss of some of the genuine feeling of their previous releases, it does improve the band’s style of music in terms of being genuinely good to listen to, in my opinion. Honor Titus’ voice is highly iconic, and forms one of the factors separating the group from other contenders in the punk rock game at the moment.
Fake I.D. is one of my favourites on the album, alongside Parade Of Idiots and Another Day. The skate-punk attitude makes the album pretty ideal listening for the summer, with thrashy punk vibes but more meaning and arguably more depth than pop-punk, while remaining relatively cheerful/ballzy.
There are a few criticisms of the album, however, for example some argue that the addition of melody has resulted in a loss of genuine feeling and some of the energy. The band are maturing out of their angsty teenage years, a stage which compliments this genre so well, but I would argue that they are not losing out as a result. For example, the change of focus from manic speed and intensity toward a melody is a solid move for the band, as this way they simply add to their sound to change as they change as individuals. However certain tracks, such as Better In Leather, do float a little too close to the inspirations behind the band, particularly The Ramones.
The album is strong, additions to the sound allow the sound to live on through changes to individual lifestyles of the artists. The music is good, and despite not being as much about anger and other, more distinctly teenage, emotions it is still very good, very fast and very raw skate-punk.
Nilla Reviews 