The Queers

Pleasant Screams (2002)

Brandon Sideleau

Pop punk- the genre itself incites fury amongst "so called" punks nowadays. But, in a time when countless Blink 182 clones flood the mainstream pop punk arena, we have a band like the Queers.

This is actually my first queers album and I wasn't expecting much at first, I knew they were pop punk and modern pop punk was about as lame as any MTV pop boy band, but I downloaded some songs anyway. Holyshit is all I have to say!

This album makes me think of the Ramones combined with early Green Day, pop punk masterpeices the way they should be. From the catchy opener "Get A Life And Live It" the album starts out with classic Ramone-esque buzz guitars, catchy as hell choruses and some of the funniest lyrics I've ever heard. They play plenty of love songs, but they come of beautifully and actually make you feel something, unlike these stupid whinny voiced pop punkers like New Found Glory or Sum 41. My personal favorites are "See Ya Later Fuckface", the best pop punk song I've heard since Blitzkrieg Bop, "It's Cold Outside"- a cover of a '50's classic that comes off very touching, and "Danny Vapid" with the catchy chorus- "Danny Vapid he ain't no faggot he's alright with me!".

Overall, this is an excellent album and quite possibly a landmark album as well. There have been other great pop punk albums within the past year- Randy's Human Atom Bombs most notably, but this is the best in my opinion, very consistent and entertaining. Plus I'm more into dark hardcore punk than anything and I loved this, so I think most of you will dig this bigtime. This is a must have, buy it now for your own health.