The Queers

Item: Back to the Basement
Rating: 5
Author: Rich Cocksedge

Back to the Basement (2010)

Rich Cocksedge

I will start this review by clarifying that I am a big fan of the Ramones. They're one of my all-time favourite bands, they were great every time I saw them live and even my four-year-old daughter enjoys rocking out to their music. So, with that background out of the way, let the review commence…

The last thing by the Queers that I heard was the Live in West Hollywood album that a friend lent me a year or two ago. It was pretty damn good and showcased the band very well as they performed a blistering set. I've been aware of the band for a long time and have some of their earlier albums within my collection, so I was looking forward to seeing how they sounded these days with their latest release, Back to the Basement.

Opening with the excellent, although slightly incongruous instrumental "Rollerdog", this is swiftly followed by the uptempo and enjoyable title track. At this stage all was going swimmingly, with even the fairly crass "Titfuck" being a decent tune (lyrically awful, though). However, from there on in the album becomes quite patchy with a couple of good songs ("Pull Me Out of It" and a cover of Black Flag's "White Minority") surrounded by some mediocre and plodding–at best–efforts, culminating in a very low-key end to the album.

Personally, I think the reliance on the Ramones as the basis for what Queers produce is overdone. Hell, if I want to hear Ramones-like songs I'll slap on Leave Home or Too Tough to Die, so I'm not really going to get all excited about a band basically attempting to sound like Da Bruddas, especially when they put forward so many sub-standard songs.

There will be many who disagree with me and think this is a good album, and to them I say that this is just my opinion so go ahead and enjoy it, but for me it's a record that has got the sense of being rushed, severely lacking in quality and imagination. There's an average EP amongst these 13 tracks, so I'll probably be whittling the album down accordingly on my MP3 player in the near future.