Times New Viking - Rip It Off (CD)

All Music Guide

Times New Viking aren't for the faint of ear. The trio from Ohio has no time for subtle recording tricks like EQ, proper levels or fidelity. No doubt their recording budget hovered around the low 2 figures with most of that going toward beverages. The resulting album is a 30minute blast of overdriven organ, squawking guitars, rattling drums and pushed to distortion vocals that sounds painful when played loud and like a far off hum when played quietly. Despite all this, Rip It Off is an incredibly good record. Maybe because of it, even. Beneath all the noise are songs with pretty melodies, huge hooks and singalong choruses. Take the fuzz off of DropOut and you have a TV commercial, clean up Another Day and you have a girl group classic, fix the levels on Off the Wall and you have (possibly) a sweet love song. There is most definitely a pop band at the bottom of that layer of hissing sludge. Not that we're talking about an Archies record here, there is plenty of raw emotion on display (R...ip Allegory, The Apt.), songs that have some complexity in their structure and delivery (Relevant: Now) and a huge dose of ART from the typewritten text on the cover down to the unique use of punctuation in the song titles. Read more Less