The Adolescents - Brats in Battalions (CD)

All Music Guide

The first album by the reformed Adolescents (the group had split after their 1981 debut) finds most of the original band reunited, with the exception of Alfie Agnew standing in for his brother Frank Agnew on second guitar behind singer Tony Cadena and lead guitarist/primary songwriter Rikk Agnew. Much had changed on the hardcore scene since the band's 1982 split, however, and Brats In Battalions finds the group foundering a bit as they try to decide which of the several available fragmentary minigenres they slot into best: Queers/Descendentsstyle pop/punk, Redd Krossstyle sarcastic power pop, Social Distortionlike Americana, Suicidal Tendencieslike punkmetal?all are tried on, and while most of them suit the band fine, none of them are exactly right. Interestingly, the best tracks are the Flamin Grooviesinspired raucous covers of the protopunk classics "I Got A Right" and a "House of the Rising Sun" that turns the Animals' version of the song into a grinding howl of posthardcore energy.... (Unfortunately for fans of punk covers of British Invasion classics, "Do the Freddie" is a clattering, seemingly halffinished original, not the Freddie and the Dreamers theme song.) The Adolescents and their later incarnation ADZ would make this style of punkinfused pop cover a band specialty over their following albums, but those records would also find the group focusing their own creative energies to a greater effect. - Stewart Mason, All Music Guide Read more Less