Awful Album Reviews #9: Descendents - Milo Goes To College

Hey guys, welcome back to another album review! Today, we will be checking out the 1982 punk rock classic Milo Goes To College by the Descendents. I have heard that this band and album was an influence on many more modern punk bands I love, and that this record was loved by many great artists, such as Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters and Fat Mike of NOFX. It has also been recommended to me by both last.fm and Spotify based on my taste, so I think now is a great time to give it a listen. I have not heard anything from this band before today, so this will mostly be first impressions. It should be fun. Let's get to it!



INTRODUCTION

Milo Goes To College is the debut album released by punk rock band the Descendents in 1982. Released through The Minutemen's label New Alliance Records, the album's title is a reference to how lead singer Milo Aukerman wanted to leave the band so he could attend college. The album's cover is supposed to be a drawing of Aukerman, and it later became the band's mascot, appearing on five of their seven studio albums. This record is often considered as one of the most significant albums of a hardcore movement taking place in Southern California in the early 1980s, and many publications have called it a very noteworthy punk album. Sounds like a pretty good album, right? Well, let's listen to it and see. It's only 22 minutes long so it shouldn't be that grating.



REVIEW

So my first impression of this band's sound and style is that it's very punk. It has the sound of the bass that I'm used to hearing in punk music, and the hardcore feel created by the drums and driving power chords. Singer Milo Aukerman sounds a bit different than I expected, as I expected him to sound a little bit like Greg Graffin of Bad Religion. Not sure why but I just did. But I like his voice okay, it's not the best in punk but it does well. And going on into the second and third tracks the bass, provided by Tony Lombardo, really stands out as what it should be. The bass is a fundamental part of punk rock music and if a band has a great bassist like him then they have a great foundation for making everything else good. I read some about him before and I learned about his playing technique and how he practices, and I thought that was very unique and inspiring. Plus, he's 20 years older than the other band members, which was kind of amusing. Maybe that plays a part in why he seems to be so talented? I don't know.

As for the style in this album, some of the songs remind me a lot of Bad Religion's 1982 album How Could Hell Be Any Worse. I plan on reviewing that album in full in a future post, but I'll just say here that that record has a very distinct style of punk rock that turns out to be unforgettable. Because it's so unforgettable, I thought of that record when I heard a lot of the songs on this one. I'm not saying that this is copying that record or trying too hard to be like it or anything, because that record came out in the same year as this one, I just like to hear that sound. Frank Navetta provides great guitars that help give it this vibe and just a great punk sound in general. Unfortunately, though, about a quarter of a century after leaving the band, he became ill and ultimately passed away, so #RIPFrankNavetta I guess. And drummer Bill Stevenson, who is actually the band's only constant member, did a great job drumming, because fast and upbeat drums really help in making a good punk sound. He seems to be good at that. Also, he wrote or co-wrote six of the album's songs, which is pretty good for someone you wouldn't expect to help with the writing. I think the album was well-produced as well, so props to producer Spot for that. Really everything in this album is at least under the good or decent tier, and I can see now why it's so iconic. I think the icony sort of comes from the album's sound rather than the songs on it, but I will go through each of those anyways. Here are my short reviews of each track.



TRACK-BY-TRACK REVIEWS

1. "Myage"
Rating: 9.5/10
Comments: This song gave me a really good first impression of this band, and that is always good. Lombardo's bass in the song is great and the punk sound here is real. Definitely a keeper.

2. "I Wanna Be a Bear"
Rating: 8.5/10
Comments: This was short but pretty sweet. The good vibes continue to go on here and it's cool.

3. "I'm Not a Loser"
Rating: 9/10
Comments: This song was pretty catchy and the lyrics somewhat stood out for some reason.

4. "Parents"
Rating: 8/10
Comments: The bass stands out a bit here again and I love that. But the lyrics are a bit questionable. They sound a bit like something from a 2000s emo or post grunge song. And I'm not too sure that belongs in punk rock. But I don't mind it too much, I guess.

5. "Tony Age"
Rating: 7/10
Comments: The talking parts here are not the best, but the instrumental is good.

6. "M-16"
Rating: 9/10
Comments: This was catchy, not exactly a keeper but it came really close.

7. "I'm Not a Punk"
Rating: 9.5/10
Comments: I immediately got some early Bad Religion vibes from that opening instrumental. They sort of continued into the song and I kind of enjoyed that. It sets this song apart.

8. "Catalina"
Rating: 9.5/10
Comments: Again, that bass in the intro always seems to set a great stage for the song. And I hear a little bit of early Bad Religion in this, too. I like their early style and it's good to hear another band that does it.

9. "Suburban Home"
Rating: 9.5/10
Comments: Catchy song, the guitars work very well with Aukerman's singing. A very well made punk song.

10. "Statue of Liberty"
Rating: 9.5/10
Comments: I promise I'll shut up about early Bad Religion after this, but seriously, that kind of style in songs like this makes them good for me. Not every song has it but a lot of the ones that do, like this one, are keepers.

11. "Kabuki Girl"
Rating: 9/10
Comments: The guitars here seem to stand out, as they give the song a great vibe. Everything else is good as well.

12. "Marriage"
Rating: 9/10
Comments: The great classic punk sound shows up a lot here. I like Aukerman's singing and the guitars accompany it very well. That makes for a good song.

13. "Hope"
Rating: 9.5/10
Comments: I liked this one a lot. Not sure why but it reminded me a lot of the song "Happy Guy" from NOFX's Punk In Drublic. And this is the third-to-last song in the album just like that one, so it's obviously good like it is.

14. "Bikeage"
Rating: 9.5/10
Comments: Another keeper here. All of the instruments come together here to form a great background track to accompany the great singing from Aukerman. Exactly what I want to hear.

15. "Jean Is Dead"
Rating: 9.5/10
Comments: The bass strikes again here. And this seems to be Aukerman at his best because the song sort of feels like an anthem. Great way to close this out.


Favorite songs: "Myage", "Bikeage", "Hope", "I'm Not a Punk", and pretty much all the other 9.5/10s

Least favorite songs: "Tony Age", "Parents", "I Wanna Be a Bear", although I liked all of the songs on this.



OVERALL ALBUM SCORE

135.5/150 = 9.03333/10 = 0.903333 = 90.3333%



FINAL WORDS

Well, I think that what everyone said about this album is true. It was a great listen. The punk sound here topped all, and all of the instruments came together very nicely to make something that really pleased my ears. I would definitely listen to it again. And I recommend it to anyone who wants to know what early punk rock sounds like. You won't get many later punk vibes from it, but the early ones are good enough.

And that will wrap up this post. Thank you to everyone who read it, and if you think that this album might be one that you would enjoy listening to, then you can check it out on YouTube here or on Spotify here. Also, if you have any suggestions for future posts, whether it's an album, song, or chart for me to review, or a top ten, then I would be glad to do it, so please contact me wherever to give me those. So yeah, thanks again and I'll see you guys again soon!

Sleazy Song Reviews #3: Blueface - "Thotiana"

Hey music fans, and welcome back to song review! This one should be fun, as this song is very popular and has become a trending meme that is supposed to be good. I am excited to do it. But before I start, I just wanted to say that I will try to get Miscellaneous Mondays back next month, as I'm having a hard time doing it for this month because of how I've pushed myself into a music-discovering hiatus due to all the new stuff I've inhaled lately. When I'm done with that I promise I will have a lot of songs to talk about, so stay tuned. Meanwhile I have this to do. It sounds fun so let's get into it!



INTRODUCTION

"Thotiana" is a song released on January 29, 2019, by American rapper Johnathan Porter, also known as Blueface. It appears on his second mixtape Famous Cryp and was written by Porter and Scum Beats. In January of 2019, Porter released a remix of this song with American rapper YG on YouTube along with a Cole Bennett-directed music video. A week or two after the song's release, he released another remix, featuring American rapper Cardi B, on his social media pages. The music video for that remix, also directed by Bennett, was posted onto YouTube on February 16, 2019. The third and final remix, featuring both YG and Cardi B, was released to most music platforms two days later. These remixes and a dance challenge created on social media have helped the song reach the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it has peaked at #9. According to his Wikipedia pages, Blueface supposedly has an off-beat style of rapping and a unique voice that has been compared to E-40, Suga Free, Juvenile, and Slikk the Shocker. I think that sounds like an interesting style that should be fun to hear in this song, and if I like it I can look more into the mixtape and maybe review that here. But we'll see. Let's turn up and see if it's good.



REVIEW

Right away the piano-driven beat sounds good. The drums that come in soon after make it seem hype. What sounds like a chorus or hook comes in right after, as he repeats, "Bust down, Thotiana," and some other things. I think it reminds me quite a bit of a DJ Mustard-produced rap song that would have been a big thing back in 2014 or 2015. But that is not a bad thing. I think a lot of those songs sound decent, and this one does so far. I can kind of see what the off-beat rapping style is about now, too, and I kind of enjoy that. Going into the halfway point the song doesn't have too many layers, but the absence of some possible layers makes it sound pretty chill and I don't mind that. His rapping style seems to get a little more enjoyable as the song goes on as well. That marks the halfway point and I think the song is really worth listening to now because of how catchy it is. I think his rhymes sound good and the off-beat rapping style helps them become more easily moldable into something good. This style isn't something you hear every day and when I do hear it I enjoy it. When he continues to repeat, "Bust down, Thotiana," I just think it brings the song up more than it does down because it gives the song a catchy, more positive vibe. And we're already at the end because the song is only two minutes and nine seconds long. A lot of rap songs today are short like that, but I'm used to it because a lot of my favorite punk rock songs are also that length. It's short but sweet.

Now let's look at the lyrics. Genius says that the song is a strip club anthem that has instructions for any stripper that is listening to it. I think the way he calls a possible stripper "Thotiana" is creative, fun to say, and fun to hear. Even Blueface himself says that he chose "Thotiana" because he thought it was a catchy and different word. But back to the stripper thing, Blueface also said that he wanted this song to be a strip club hit, and if I ran a strip club I would definitely play this song in it as much as I could because even if it wasn't popular, I can see people really liking it when it's played. I can see it as a good dancing song as well. Also, even though everyone thinks Blueface raps off-beat, he says that he writes the song to the beat. How he does that and then raps it somewhat differently is nice. And now I don't have much else to say because the song is shorter than what I'm used to. I think in the short amount of time I had listening to the song a lot of good things happened and I like that.



OVERALL THOUGHTS

So, do I think this song is good? Yes, I do. It has a lot of things going on despite it sounding simple and hard to dig into and that's good. Do I think it deserves to be a top ten hit in this country? I would say yes, especially with lazier trap songs (*cough* "7 rings" *cough*) being up there with it. I would not mind seeing it go further in the charts at all. I do sort of see this song as a bit of an escape from all of the lazy trap that's high up on the charts today because there's actually some fun in it. There aren't many negative things in this song, but I wouldn't quite call it great because there aren't enough layers in the song for that. However, I still don't mind the absence of a lot of layers because I don't think this song is meant to have too many of them. If it did it would be sort of a different song that comes with a risk of being worse than before. So I think it's fine the way it is. Good song overall, I am fine with it being a hit, and I definitely can see myself coming back to it when I'm bored. If I had to rate it out of 10, I'd give it a 7, maybe a very light 8, which is good for a modern rap song.



FINAL WORDS

So yeah, that wraps up this song review. I had fun listening to this song and writing a review for it, and it makes me want to do these more often. So if you have a song you want me to review like this, then seriously tell me and I will be glad to review it. Or if there's a whole chart worth of songs you want me to review, tell me that and I don't mind looking into that either. I will not turn down your suggestions so just keep them coming! Either way, thanks if you read this far, and if you want to listen to this song, you can do so via YouTube here and Spotify here. I recommend it to anyone who is downright not scared of modern rap music, but if you are then stay away because you won't like it. But if you're not, jump right in, this might be for you. Thanks again and I'll see you guys soon! Have a great rest of your day! :D