I loved A's Hi-Fi Serious. I'd finnaly found a great band that had a synth and still played some great punk rock, with hard driving guitars and good lyrics (not like Motion City Soundtrack). The CD didn't leave my stereo for weeks.

And then, while I was walking through my city's largest commercial CD shop, I was surprised to see their new CD. Surprised? Sure, I had found Hi-Fi Serious in a small indie record shop. Well, as it turns out, London Records have been bought up by Universal. Well, stuff happens.

This CD is their 4th one. It's called Teen Dance Ordinance after draconian laws that governed Seattle and Washington State's live music industry from 1985-2002 which said that gigs for people under 18 could only be attended by people between 15 and 18 and if you were older, you had to be accompanying someone under 18. This, along with other bullshit, caused the two states' music industry to almost completely shut down. Nice title, isn't it?

The CD itself is awsome. Standout tracks include "Afterburner," "Worst Thing That Can Happen," "Black Hole" (which shows some heavy AC/DC influences), "Die Tonight," "Someone Else" (with a great punk-pop second guitar) and of course, "Rush Song." Not many things are wrong on this CD, but it still lacks something which was on Hi-Fi Serious. First off, the production is too slick in my humble opinion. Then, there isn't enough synth. Yes, I'm serious. This band's sound was original because of the synth. And now, it's almost gone. And finally, the songs sound too much the same. In the CD beforehand, after hearing it a couple of times, you noticed that the songs were very different. But this isn't the case with this CD. Too bad.

This could be A's hit CD, but it probably won't be. Good, straight punk rock / punk-pop, but not as good as the previous one.