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Dead Letter Dept.

Rock N' Roll Hates You (2005)
Underground Operations

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

Published on April 18th 2006

All bands, labels, and promotional companies lie in press sheets. It’s inevitable. They all have to make their product sound like the single best record to come out in the year, that’s fine, I understand that. But making ridiculous, outlandish claims that couldn’t be further from the truth are going to make me hate the band before even ever hearing the entire record.

I did give Dead Letter Dept.'s Rock N’ Roll Hates You an entirely fair shake, and nowhere in the record were “anthems dedicated to those who have given into the consumerist ideal of society.” You don’t have to be Bad Religion or Propagandhi to make an informed, intelligent statement with your music, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that “She haunts my dreams my dreams, makes her happy / She sucks my blood makes her happy, is this lust? / I don’t want to wake up” doesn’t quite qualify as informed social commentary. What it qualifies as is vapid nonsense about trivial failed relationships. Three cheers for being unique.

Lyrics aren’t everything, though. No, the band actually impresses in plenty of other areas as well!

Okay, so that was a lie. The truth of the matter is that they sound like plenty of other bands out there right now. “Punk” at the core, with some whiny out of tune vocals that reek of bad high school relationships and being pissed off because they were out of tater tots in the lunch line. The chord progressions are pretty rudimentary, save for a little bit of the underlying melodic riffing; at least they attempted a degree of diversity in their sound. Only on “Sailor / Mudboy Opus” do they really branch out, basing the song off some real `50s rock ‘n’ roll-like guitar work that’s surprisingly refreshing. Sounds a bit like Chubby Checker’s “The Twist,” which is something more bands should base their music on to be quite honest.

The majority of it however is still just boring emo/punk fodder. Another one bites the dust. So true, Mr. Mercury, so true.

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Anonymous (April 20, 2006)

rock n' roll hates this band; cool album art though.

swank (April 19, 2006)

I, for one, actually really dug this record.
It's an interesting departure for these dudes, who as many people have mentioned, started off as a lookout! style pop-punk band. So, for them to take it down a notch and go for a introverted, almost Alt-Country direction is a brave step.

I think a description like "anthems dedicated to those who have given into the consumerist ideal of society.”, While overblown, is an apt description for a Song like "All My Friends Love Freedom".
While other tracks like "Is Everything Alright?" and "Sailor / Mudboy Opus” are toe-tapping good times.

Is it better than their screeching weasel days? Perhaps not, but I respect them for doing their own thing.

Anonymous (April 19, 2006)

i put on a show with these guys a longggg time ago, i thought they were pretty good. they were just a pop punk band.

this is the first time i've heard of them since then.

Anonymous (April 18, 2006)

This is a very different album for these guys, and while it's not my favorite of their material, it's definitely better than this review gives it credit for. I haven't seen these dudes in years, but they were top notch gents as well. Although I'm pretty bummed to hear that Andrew isn't in the band any longer.

Anonymous (April 18, 2006)

The album's not all THAT bad... It has it's moments. "All my friends love Freedom" is a pretty sweet song. But, overall, it's rather underwhelming.

To the previous comment, UO isn't too bad a label. Bombs Over Providence and Closet Monster rocked... it's a shame they've both broken up, though.

moneenerd (April 18, 2006)

these guys used to MEAN something, but now theyve signed to that Underground Operations disaster of a label run by kids and have gone to shit, trying harder and harder to become "political" to fit in with the rest of their hippie punk labelmates. if only anchors could hear their older stuff.

Shley (April 18, 2006)

DLD has been a solid band in my "listen to" pile of tracks bank for the past few years. They were even kind enough to play a summer keg party I threw last year. Big time kudos to Singe, Blanc and Steve!

Rob why did you have to pull the plug on your long time bassist? Too bad, you guys were a tight group.

Scruffy (April 18, 2006)

Anchors, I can always tell when I'm reading one of your reviews, and that's not a bad thing. It used to be because of the anecdotes at the beginning, but now it's the tone, word choice, etc... It's rare that someone has critiqued enough albums to develop a style, but I think you have. Congrats.

Also, I think I'd rather see DK without Jello than Queen without Freddie.

Anonymous (April 18, 2006)

I dont know how i feel about the Queen shows going on. I mean, Freddy Murcury was what Queen was in my oppinion. Its much like Jello was DK.