Jughead's Revenge

Pearly Gates (2001)

Aubin Paul

Jughead's Revenge is one of the few bands to really confuse me. Are they hardcore? If you hear Faust Part 2, you'll probably say hardcore, on the other hand, if you Lolita you'll probably call them SoCal melodic punk. This uh… dichotomy has made for some great music. Image is Everything had it all, angry, powerful music, and dark, but catchy melodic tracks. On the other hand, Just Joined and about half of 12 Kiddie Favourites were a little uneven, and didn't sound all that great.

This record isn't half bad, unfortunately, it's still a quarter bad, but the rest is decent. Musically, the band is tight, and their forays into 'other' styles work well, Swell is a great surf instrumental, and they do a cool punk rock cover of the Cars' Just What I Needed.
But the thing with Jughead's Revenge is this. When they're angry, aggressive, and loud, they write their best music. When they're targetting ex-girlfriends, ex-friends and stupid bouncers, they're on a roll. On the other hand, when they write semi-melodic music, Joe D.'s voice just doesn't make it, and they sound like their faking it.

I don't know. It's hard to write a review about a record you don't love or hate, but unfortunately that's what happened here. I don't hate it, but it didn't amaze me either. So my review is a little uneven sounding. I guess that's because the record is too.