Bigwig

Stay Asleep (1999)

Ben Conoley

Ok, I'm not going to lie. I didn't really know what to expect when I ordered this album from Kung-Fu a while back. I'd heard the song 'Freegan' on the Fat Wreck comp 'Short Music for Short People' and kind of liked the hard and fast approach to the music, and the way the singer kind of spits out his lyrics, so I bought the album.

To give you an idea of how good this album actually is, I copied it onto a tape for my car about a year ago. And since then, it's been one of those tapes that just keeps getting put back in. Maybe it's just a great album to drive to…

It's very hard to put this album into a genre. Possibly because it transcends so many. It has all the catchy hooks you need to sing-a-long, as well as being hard and aggresive. Kind of like pop-punk-hardcore I guess :)

The musician ship is good, with lots of beefy metal-riffs, and some rapid drumming-- a good combination for plenty of pit action. The lyrics are great, both witty and thought provoking, they prove neither too deep, or too shallow.

For me, the highlights of the album have to be the tracks 'Flavor Ice' and 'Boardumb' - these are the ones that really get me going. There's a lot of people who like the song 'Friends' - a mid paced number that really rocks, and the song '13' has one of my favourite lines ever written - "I'd ratter be happy and poor, Than have it and still want more".

Just get the album, OK? You'll like it…