Killradio

Raised On Whipped Cream (2004)

Greg

Drivel. Well-executed, but drivel nonetheless. Killradio rally against nearly everything (take that teachers… how dare you make us learn) and offer nothing, really. Sure, with this major label production, this CD sounds damn tight. And I will give them some credit because they can write a catchy song and a powerful song. I even thought I might like it on first listen, until I realized how much they were just pulling from successful formulas, producing MTV/Fuse/radio-ready tunes. All with a name like Killradio.

So how much are they trying to cash in, and therefore being hypocritical? Dance punk is hot right now, so let's write one of those ("Freedom")! Can't get enough of Jet and that retro-rock, let's write a song like that ("Where Go We"). Lots of kids like screaming in their songs, and they like The Used, so let's do that ("A.M.E.R.I.K.A.," "Pull Out" and many others), and isn't ska supposed to come back? Let's put some of that in the title track, make it sound like Operation Ivy. And of course pop-punk always takes well with the teens, so how 'bout "Burning the Water Brown?" Dub is cool too, let's make "Classroom Blues" sound like it's a Sublime song, or The Clash…Hot Topic has shown the kids that they are cool again.

Sure, "Pull Out" is a good song, and I bet it makes the kids jump rhythmically at all the shows during the breakdown chorus. "Do You Know" is a good tune, and "Where Go We" is catchy as hell. But the drivel in the lyrics, the playing to the angry teen demographic and the shameless genre-jumping are such a turn off. Plus the cover is dumb as hell. Killradio? You're made for the radio!