CD Review: NOFX Coaster

It's been a long time since I've subjected you to album reviews. Here comes a bunch.


NOFX
Coaster

I like NOFX for the same reason I get sucked into CSI:Miami—even if you only check in once every couple of years, the story still makes sense. You get an hour of entertainment and then you’re free to get on with your day.

With their 13^th studio album, the band also celebrates their 25-year anniversary (and encourages fans to use their CDs as coasters). This NOFX episode is all about singer Fat Mike’s raging alcoholism and drug abuse. Fortunately, these addictions haven’t dulled his razor-sharp wit. He jokes about going to the bar at 6:00 a.m. (“First Call”), forgetting all the good times (“I AM an Alcoholic”), and asking Tegan or Sara (he’s not sure which) where he can score pills (“Creeping Out Sara”).

The rest of record contains standard NOFX fare—hating corporate America (“We Called It America,” “Suits and Ladders”) and Jesus (“Blasphemy,” “Best God in Show”). There is, however, a rare moment of sincerity (“My Orphan Years”) when Fat Mike laments the passing of his parents.

After 25 years, NOFX are enjoying the best of both punk rock worlds—musically they’re tighter than ever and socially they still act like 15-year-olds. Here’s to another quarter century!

NOFX - Creeping Out Sara

For fans of: Lagwagon, Pennywise
Rating: 3.5 of 4