1. Villain
2. Honor, Not Pride
3. All Because of You
4. Hanging Up
5. Lost Control
6. Bridges and Breakdowns
7. Sick of It all
8. PSA
9. Sitting Down Drinking Beer
10. Deciding
11. Numbers
12. Scarlet Letter
13. The Fight
14. Gone Before You Know
15. [secret track]

The Down and Outs begin the album with an old-fashioned 90s style of skatepunk with simple chord sequences and tunes, shiny vocal harmonies and a touch of ska, not unlike early Millencolin or even 88 Fingers Louie. So I was listening to the first half of this album and pretty much the only things that crossed my mind were “yeah, skatepunk!”, “this song is quite long” and “hmm, their style is quite nice”

The Public Service Announcement in the middle of the album confused me a bit, I thought I was listening to Spotify and one of their adverts had kicked in, until I realised the sheer randomness and non-sequitur nature of the content.

After the PSA, the album improved considerably, with a few short riotous songs and some edgier Bigwig style power, altogether a lot more creativity and variation in the songs, some standout bass riffs and classic little jumps and chugs in the rhythm. It felt like I’d listened to a split album of two artists, and while not much really grabbed me on the first half, there were many more times on the second half that made me think “hey, that was fucking cool!”.

www.thedownandouts.com