She Likes Todd

A Story Still Untold (2010)

Brian Shultz

She Likes Todd are a veteran act at this point, having been together since 1999, but they didn't hit Punknews' radar until their halfway decent 2009 7", Expose Reality, a promising platter of skatepunk modeled after the likes of Propagandhi and early No Use for a Name. A Story Still Untold is what the band seem to consider their fourth worthwhile full-length, and while the band aren't taking the style anywhere groundbreaking, it's another respectable effort regardless.

Good riffs, bright melodies and modestly delivered vocals make "Storybook Endings" an all-around solid opener. While the same could largely be said for all of Story's 12 tracks, which average about 3:20 a clip, the band gets some interesting moments in here and there. The second-longest track here, "Another Starless Night" extends itself with a longer instrumental build and some wailing riffing in the last minute, channeling some of NOFX's somewhat more serious-sounding conceptions. The vocals feel punctual and emphatic for the slightly more aggressive "Kaleidoscope of Screams", and it ends with an effect-laden, sort of electronic fade. "Decomposing" provides a nice break from the forbidden beat, slowing down the tempo for a long track that sound closer to the likes of bygones like Limp, or maybe Millencolin.

With the band getting a little samey as the second half winds down, "Throw It Away" has nice, bite-sized morsels of shredding, and the two-part "Somewhere Between the Pages" closes it out in a conclusive enough fashion, with some more lightly metallic riffing to boot.

She Likes Todd aren't breaking the musical bank with A Story Still Untold, but I bet this is one of their better releases to date. If you have a hankering for solid skatepunk, this could do the trick.

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A Story Still Untold