A long time ago (and by that I mean a few years ago) my brother in law told me about this band in Laramie, Wyoming that he thought I might like. I’d never heard of them and thought their name was interesting enough to warrant a listen. Since that day I’ve loved Teenage Bottlerocket’s music. When I got Another Way, I played it over and over and over. It had these super stripped down, but still rocking songs. Then Total came out and with it brought Kody from the Lillingtons to the mix. It didn’t leave my cd player for months.
Just recently Teenage Bottlerocket put out their third full length record, Warning Device, and with it, they’ve topped their other albums. Now, I don’t mean to say that I don’t love every song off of Another Way or Total, but this new album is just done so damn well that I have to say it’s their best effort yet.
“Bottlerocket” starts the album off with a loud, fast, simple in-your-face 51 seconds of awesome, and I’m not sure if it’s intentional, but it could definitely be a one song description of their live shows; light the fuse and watch the bottle rocket go.
This album is about as strong an album as could be made. I had trouble deciding which songs stood out from the rest because there really aren’t any disappointing songs. It’s one whole, solid piece of work. There are so many standout songs.
“Pacemaker” is possibly my favorite on the album. It’s a little break from the normal Teenage Bottlerocket song. It’s a little easy going at first and you really notice the bass line and how it bounces it’s way around behind the vocals. Then the guitars really kick in and it slaps you in the face. Instead of just being another song about another ex girlfriend, but it’s a fucking great song about an ex girlfriend, and I have to say I think the lyrics are really really well written.
Another standout is “Social Life” with Kody singing. Another great song, and with references to First Blood part 2, it’s got a nice side of humor as well.
On My Own and In the Nuthouse are also great songs. Really though, it’s tough to just pick a few and say they’re better than the rest because this whole album is so solid. And speaking of solid, Red Scare made another song available for digital download only: I Know You Know. It’s from the same recording session as Warning Device, and I think it really speaks to the quality of the album that a song as good as I Know You Know gets left off.
Go buy this album. You’re going to love it. And if you don’t, then fuck, what are you doing reading this review?
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