NOFX

Heavy Petting Zoo (1996)

fathead

So what do you say about an album that most people seem to hate? Here's what I say, "I LOVE it".

NOFX has put out some of the most popular punk albums ever, but Heavy Petting Zoo gets little recognition. They expeiramented with different sounds a little more than usual, and that's maybe why it's in the pits of most punkers' collections.

HPZ starts out with a classic NOFX funny song, 'Hobophobic(scared of bums)'. 'Philthy Phil Philanthropist' is next, and continues to be one of my favorite noFX songs. Its relatively simple, but contains some cool lyrics and a xylophone. 'Freedom like a shopping cart' is one of the best songs on HPZ, with a melody that sticks like glue. 'Bleeding Heart Disease', one of the fastest songs, breaks down into one of the happiest nOFX moments in history, with a chant of 'do-da-do-do-do-da-do'. 'Hot dog in a hallway' is slow, mellow through half, and heavy through the rest, and easily one of the funniest Nofx songs ever. Fat women need lovins too.'Release the hostages' is a really fast song about drinking, so its gotta be good, right? Next is one of the best songs they've ever written. 'Liza' has a semi-slow tempo, but the arrangement and the mixing of styles shows their growth as musicians better than any track on the album. 'What's the matter with the kids today?' is a short, rockin' song, but it's pretty much mediocre. 'Love Story' is soft and satirically sweet, then blows up into punk rock. However, I prefer the mellow part of this song. The loud part is rather annoying. 'The black and white' is a good fast song, but it doesn't stand out. 'Whatever Didi wants' is as pop as nofX will ever sound, but it does have some really cool interchanging guitar parts. 'August 8th' pokes fun at the hippie culture, who lost their leader (Jerry Garcia) on the afformentioned date. It's funny and different, but I found it kinda harsh. Sure, Garcia was a junkie for most of his life, and his late work stunk like my undies, but no one toured like the Dead and he was a good guitar player. I mean, I doubt a hippie band will write a song making fun of the day Joey Ramone died, but oh well, it's classic NofX rudeness.
Boy, I'm gonna hear some shit for that one! 'Drop the World' is melodic and fast, and it actually has some cool FX.

Most of the lyrics on Heavy Petting Zoo are suprisningly deeper than most of nofx's work, and the booklet is just classic. I've seen NOfx twice, and I've never heard a single song from Heavy Petting Zoo. Granted, both times were at Warped Tour, so that's only an hour total, but it's like they've just forgotten about the album all together. I like it. The expeiramentation made HPZ a nice change from the normal, fast NOFX CD. Ignore all the criticizems about this album, and check it out yourself. It make take some getting used to, but you'll eventually warm up to it.