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Unwritten Law

Unwritten Law (1998)
Universal Music Group

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Contributed by: Mark Williams
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on June 12th 2001

If you look up the word 'mediocre' in the dictionary, you'll see a picture of this cd. It sounds like it was written for a radio station. All the songs are predictable and trite, to say the least. Songs like 'California Sky', 'Holiday' (both of which I heard on the radio, and that is a rareity where I live), 'Genocide', 'Coffin Text' and "Teenage Suicide' are your run of the mill, up beat meldoic punk, with nothing special anywhere near them. Their singer sounds a lot like MxPx, and I do hear potential in their music, but nothing jumps out as a 'killer tune'. I did like 'Sorry', because of the beat change, catchy riff, and funny lyrics, but that's about the only song I listen to. Unwritten Law is one of the few punk bands in recent memory to try and go huge, but fail miserably. I would have rather seen this on the billboard charts than Enema Of The State, but I guess it lacks in the teenage girl fanbase area. Oh well, no skin off my back.

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Anonymous (June 17, 2006)

Oh, my world. It is ok

Anonymous (June 17, 2006)

Oh, my world. It is ok

Anonymous (May 24, 2006)

this album is the peak of their career. a classic in their own manner

Anonymous (March 16, 2006)

Reverse phone numbers whiles it is still legal:

cell phone numbers
cell phone directory
cell phone lookup

Anonymous (March 2, 2006)

i love this album

Anonymous (December 15, 2005)

atrocious

jbigwig (July 4, 2004)

Guy large guy....if you looked up classic punk rock cds in the dictionary you would see a picture of Unwritten Law. The song Harmonic is wicked ass tune and this cd doesn't really dissapoint from cover to cover. Bash the pop punk all you want..but leave these guys alone because they help kick start the genre.

punkboy_1 (December 23, 2002)

this is mediocre. there are some good tunes on here, but a few aren't that great. good for a listen every now and then, but i don' think it will stay in you cd player for a while.

Anonymous (December 15, 2002)

Terrible opinion man. These guys are awesome. How can you even compare them to Mxpx? Well this CD was full of anthems for my year 9 and 10 days, the word classic is perhaps a little extreme, but it surely was one of the best pop-punk albums of the 90's.

-bemused-

evilash (November 17, 2002)

Dude seriously after Elva this album is amazing and it always was. Fathead eats wankers

Anonymous (July 30, 2002)

Best UL cd. More innovative than the older albums. Just good songwriting for the most part. Granted this album does have it's stinkers.

Anonymous (October 22, 2001)

to the person who said bif fans of this band are MxPx fans and New Found Glory fans...this is one of my favorite bands, but I hate MxPx, and New Found Glory is ok but nothing so great. mxpx is generic crap they call punk. i don't know why so many people like them. my other favorite bands are bad nofx, bad religion, goldfinger, consumed, social distortion, and so on. I think this cd has great songs, with catchy melodies. what's so bad about that? 10 points for Unwritten Law.

Anonymous (July 5, 2001)

everyone should feel sorry for this sick review, it's so fucking wrong.
That's all I wanted to say
by the way, great album.
Another thing, this album is not a classic as the dead kennedys album fresh fruit for rottin vegetables or the bad religion's album how could hell be any worse but it is a fucking great album

DrNo (June 26, 2001)

Some people might call this a good album, but that's only because you have no fore knowledge of Unwritten Law. Blue Room was a fast and furious cd. They pulled out all the stops. Oz Factor was okay and this is just a weak attempt to get into the mainstream, where UL doesn't belong. Unwritten Law was a good. I couldn't tell you who these guys are.

Anonymous (June 17, 2001)

the reviewer has no fucking idea

Anonymous (June 17, 2001)

i would like to say that i think unwritten law is a very underated band..they are really good!..and this album is actually one of my favorite..and the reviewer sucks

Anonymous (June 14, 2001)

This album seemed like they were trying to make it kind of "epic". I liked a lot of it though.

Anonymous (June 14, 2001)

we really need to reevaluate our definition of 'classic'. does this album fit in the same category as 'london calling', 'leave home', or Minor Threat's 'complete discography'? I hardly think so.

Booker_Pee (June 14, 2001)

This album IS classic. They never claimed to be a punk band in the first place; that's just how people classify them. This cd is flawless, start to finish.

Anonymous (June 13, 2001)

Unwritten Law should only be allowed to play the song "Cailin"..and maybe a couple AC/DC covers. But yea I'd love to see the guys who called Unwritten Law their favorite band...you guys probably are big MXPX and New Found GLory fans to...real winners.

sickboi (June 13, 2001)

I liked this album, but I think Fathead makes a great point. This album certainly does sound like punk crafted for mainstream radio play. Not that is necessarily a bad thing, it just hangs below this band's potential.

Anonymous (June 13, 2001)

I like the first half of this album.

Anonymous (June 13, 2001)

did you even read the review? I said I heard potential, I liked 'sorry', and I like them more than blink. that's three nice things.

Anonymous (June 13, 2001)

What the hell are you talking about?
The album is awesome, not as good as oz factor, but still great. Unwritten Law is my favorite band and they are great live. If you have nothing nice to say then shut the hell up.

Anonymous (June 13, 2001)

This CD is a classic.