‘Obscene Daydreams’ is already The Last Gang’s third album and the follow-up to 2021’s ‘Noise Noise Noise’. Just like on that last album, the Orange County based band’s new album packs 11 tunes of highly melodic punk rock with occasional nods and winks to ska. Meanwhile, vocalist Brenna Red still sounds like Brody Dalle, but manages to sneak in the kind of pop sensibilities that could never be heard in any of The Distillers songs.
Things kick off nicely with ‘Electric Avenue,’ a solid punk rock tune that is in equals measures melodic and ferocious. The same can be said for ‘The Others’ and the band’s anti-gun rallying cry ‘NRA Back 2 School,’ which has some Rise Against vibes. Off to a promising start? I like to think so.
But then come ‘Hide The Antagonist’ and ‘Rumors’. I’m not sure what they were going for with these songs, but they make the album grind to a halt. The rest of the album is a bit of a mixed bag for me. Cuts like ‘Vacant Eyes’ and ‘Berlin To Rome’ show that The Last Gang have what it takes to write solid tunes, but then the ska-speckled ‘Dead Horse’ does absolutely nothing for me.
The Last Gang is great when they stick with pure-bred punk rock songs, but my interest wanes quickly when they reach for their bag of ska tricks.
Obscene Daydreams track listing:
- Electric Avenue
- The Others
- NRA Back 2 School
- Hide the Antagonist
- Rumors
- Dogmatic Capitalizer
- Vacant Eyes
- Madness
- Dead Horse
- Berlin to Rome
- Years from Now
