Descendents

Milo Goes To College (1982)

Zeiter

When one looks at the earlier albums of any band, especially punk bands, the oldest tend to be the worst (NOFX anyone?). So when I first heard this album, knowing that it was the Descendents first full length album, I didn't expect anything great.

To my suprise, I found an album that ranked up there with 'Everything Sucks' and 'All', perhaps even better that the two. While this album may not have the production values of the two newer releases I mentioned, the songs are as good. "Myage" is a great song to kick off an album, a sweet bass line and we're off! A song like "Suburban Home" basically sums up the sentiment of society at the time, always wanting to fit nicley into categories, this tune does a great job of poking fun at this aspect of pop culture. "Hope" is basically the rally cry of all lovelorne 'losers' in the 1980's. This song is the best song Milo ever wrote, and ranks up there as one of the best Descendents tunes. Any pop-punk band would have had to have listened to this album alot in order to achieve a decent pop sound.

Calling this album pop-punk, though, is an unfair generalization. There are also alot of more hardcore bursts of energy… basically any song under one minute, or around there. This is why this album has influenced both popier and more hardcore bands, the album has aspects of both, but makes both work with a great sense of melody.