1. ThomG

   10

   Almost as good as Vs.

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2. BrendanD

   10

   While the Burmese dudes and the ex-Grandaddy fellows battle it out for best album of the first half of 2006, I'd like to take a moment to explain why this record is a masterpiece. It is for precicely the reason that Lee W gave it a 1, except for one thing that Lee overlooked: there are few albums that rock this hard and can claim to have killer melodies on every single track. That's a feat never accomplished by even the best of the grunge-era bands, and even punk masters like the Ramones weren't always able to stay tuneful. Mission of Burma, however, always has, and they've now proven it with three masterpiece albums. Don't fool yourselves; this is nowhere near the greatest record of all time, and it still can't compare to "Signals, Calls and Marches." But take a gander at "Donna Sumeria," my favorite track on here, and you'll hear the full difference between punk and post-punk. Both punk and post-punk are all about big, exciting, tuneful choruses; but whereas punk songs get to those choruses as fast as they can (or, in the case of the best of punk tunes, they just begin with the chorus), post-punk songs take their time, building it up until you feel like you're about to burst, then taking your head off by making the chorus better than you ever could have imagined. Mission of Burma pulled this trick geniously on one of the greatest songs of all time, "That's When I Reach For My Revolver," and they pull it off again on "Donna Sumeria." But that's not to say that the rest of this album doesn't kick every listener, male of female, in the figurative balls. Beginning with the unreal "2wice," there are licks that Kurt Cobain would have killed for (and Cobain had some pretty great licks himself); "The Mute Speaks Out" plays like the greater psychedelic period of the Smashing Pumpkins never existed; and even the worst track on the record, "Period," could have been a big underground hit at the '70s CBGB scene. This album is absolutely stellar, a third masterpiece for the reunited geniuses.… Expand

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3. LeeW

   1

   Since this album got such good reviews here, I tried listening to a few songs. "Nancy Reagan" was like hearing The Shaggs fronted by a man having a late mid-life crisis.… Expand

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