Album Review: OFF! - OFF!

You probably don't even need to drop the needle on the record to know whether you're going to like OFF!'s eponymous record; the Raymond Pettibon artwork, the song titles – Wiped Out, Borrow And Bomb, Feelings Are Meant To Be Hurt – and the fact it covers 16 tracks in 15 minutes ought to tell you you're in for fast, thrashy, angry punk rock. The only thing you mightn't be ready for, particularly if you didn't give OFF!'s First Four EPs a shot in 2010, is how good these songs are. This band can do a lot in under a minute.

Keith Morris' lyrics and the way he delivers them are packed with character; you can picture the crazed, dreadlocked 56-year-old hollering at you, “Have you been smoking pot, or is your head up your ass!?” like he questions in Cracked, or chasing kids off his lawn as he yells, “I'm gonna club you like a baby seal” on King Kong Brigade. The band is hot-as-hell too; Dimitri Coats' every evil riff (and there are lots of them in 15-odd minutes) cuts through your brain as Mario Rubalcaba's drums pound unrelentingly and Steven McDonald's bass lines stick to them like glue.

Maybe Morris' semi-melodic delivery and the proficiency of these musicians means you don't have to like Circle Jerks' Group Sex or the first Black Flag record [both of which are Keith Morris masterpieces] in order to dig OFF!? Time will tell. But if you feel there aren't many decent punk rock records released these days, you must run to OFF! immediately. It's hard to think of anyone who's doing this any better right now.