Rating : - Smart move offering it for free, 'cause I dunno if I'd pay for it
So with the release of Pennywise's new CD, which was a year late considering the pattern of them releasing CDs every odd year since I was one year old. So, I dunno if it was to get new exposure by people who were only quasi Pennywise fans (like me) or what, but for a short period of time this CD was available in high quality MP3 format on Myspace for absolutely free. Being the stereotypical punker kid (short on cash), free music is always a good thing, so I was happy to download and burn the music from these guys' website.

The first time I listened to it I was highly disappointed. Keep in mind that I only own one CD by this band (Their self titled 1991 album), and then I've heard some tracks here or their from various other works ("F Authority, few songs from Unknown Road and most of "The Fuse"), and it seemed to me like it was the same Pennywise sound, but a little dull and lacking in substance by comparison with what I had heard. So I wrote it off as another band slowly fizzling out of their glory days as they get older.

Then it grew on me, which is not really right... more closely, it infected me. First listen, I told myself there were about three good songs and everything else was mediocre. Second time through, I heard a totally different CD, with 14 good songs and 3 AMAZING ones. Don't know why it changed so suddenly, but these new songs, once disappointing, became totally parasitic to me and my CD player, and soon I was playing this CD every chance I got. I would go for a run (and I don't really like to run) just so I could listen to this CD as I was doing it.

Now that phase is over to and I can look at this totally objectively and say that, it is not mediocre, not bad, not awesome though. Somewhere between the good and great area this CD has chosen to nest. I probably COULD have given it four stars, but since I rarely give 5 stars a 4 star album needs to be a little bit better and I noticed that the other CDs I've given 4 stars were better than this one.

So, pluses, minuses: The strings on this CD are really good. Fletcher is on key as always, writing multiple guitar lines despite being the only six string player in the band and, a bit of a surprise, the bass is a good step up from the previous material that I've heard. For one thing, you can actually hear it (most of the time) and it tends to deviate from the safe, simple pattern of simple following the rythm guitar. There's a neat little bass into to "Something to Live For" that makes you think 'Wow, Randy is good for something other than simply replacing Thirsk.' Also, I know everybody rags on Jim's lyrics, but they're not so bad on this album, I actually really like all the risks he takes in his song writing, even if they don't all pay off and sometimes sound childish despite the fact that this dude's 42 and has been doing it for years.

The big minus on this CD is that there's nothing to really stand out like "Hey, this is the standout track, it's awesome, it's in your face, come see us live so that you can go berserk to it" I am seeing them on Warped this year, but there's no song from this album where I would say "Oh man I really hope they play this song live." The best three tracks are "As Long As We Can" "Something to Live For" and "Brag, Exaggerate and Lie" (The three songs that stuck out upon my first listen) and "One Reason" is a close second, although the into wouldn't be out of place on a metal CD.

Overall, I'd say that if you are into Pennywise this is definitely a good CD to have. I'm not an avid fan at the moment but I think that if I was I would hit you with the typical 'Get the old stuff first, but don't totally forget about this one.' However, if you don't have the money and missed the opportunity to pick it up for free, it's not a catastrophe.