Album Reviews
After having been around for almost a quarter of a century (yes, we are getting old!), Teenage Bottlerocket is back with ‘Ready To Roll,’ their first album for Pirates Press Records and their tenth album overall.
If you’ve heard the singles the band released in the lead-up to the release of ‘Ready To Roll,’ you may have the album down as another Teenage Bottlerocket album. And while the band isn’t reinventing themselves AFI-style (thank you!), they still manage to throw in a couple of curveballs. ‘True To You’ and ‘Stupid Song’ both have new wave-y sounds shining through, which show that at least one of the guys in the band has been listening to The Cure and which are also a welcome addition to the Teenage Bottlerocket sound. Elsewhere, Miguel Chen steps up to the microphone to deliver his first lead vocals on a couple of songs, including album highlight ‘Taquero’.
Want some vintage Teenage Bottlerocket? They have got you covered with the very Ramones-y ‘She’s The Shit’, single ‘Post Mortem Depression’ and the ferocious ‘High Speed Yoga’. ‘Giant Bug’ has some of the best guitar leads on the album and the fast-paced ‘What To Be For Halloween’ is an instant TBR classic.
Recorded at the Blasting Room with Andrew Berlin and mastered by Jason Livermore, ‘Ready To Roll’ doesn’t just sound amazing, the pacing is also impeccable. I honestly wasn’t expecting it, but I think ‘Ready To Roll’ may rival ‘They Came From The Shadows’ as my favorite TBR album.
Ready To Roll tracklist:
- Ready To Roll
- She's the Shit
- Taquero
- Post Mortem Depression
- I Want To Die On My Birthday
- True To You
- High Speed Yoga
- All About It
- Stupid Song
- Giant Bug
- What To Be For Halloween
- Home To You
- Friend Named Fly
- Afraid of the Dark
Lacking the talent to actually play in a band, Tom decided he would write about bands instead. Turns out his writing skills are mediocre at best as well.
