Backyard Babies
Stockholm Syndrome

THE REVIEW

I admit: the disappointment is burning hot.
I say it right away to get this weight off my chest.

I discovered them by chance with the excellent Making Enemies Is Good from 2001, and then tracked their progression from the initial steps by finding the first, rougher, Total 13.
Of course, the expectation for this new step was high, and instead...

...Instead, what I have in my hands is a disc in which the authors seem to have largely lost their way.
Let me explain.
A good Rock'n Roll album in 2004 must have two fundamental things: good songs, and drive.
These two components need to appear simultaneously in every composition - preferably - otherwise, at the very least, the race isn't led anymore, but one falls back into the pack of chasers.
And this is what's happening to the BB today.

The album starts with the anthemic, and a little bit sly, Everybody's Ready.
Then it gets lost in tracks without a clear direction (One Sound) with sometimes even slightly annoying choruses (A Song For The Outcast), or simply bland (Say When, Year By Year, Be Myself And I).
Of course, the reunion in Friends, with the participation of friends and colleagues including the never too lamented Joey Ramone, is more of a curiosity than a song, nor does the effective Pigs For Swine manage to lift the fortunes of a work that feels too much like a missed opportunity.

Have they gotten a big head? Second chance with the next CD.