Toys that Kill - Fambly 42
Rating
RIYL
The DescendentsThe Hives
MxPx
Hot Water Music
Release Date
05/15/2012
Label
Recess RecordsTracklist
1. Mobbed by the 3's2. V-Chip
3. Waltz One Million
4. The Nervous Rocks
5. Abort Me Mother Earth
6. Stye
7. I'm Foaming
8. I've Been Stabbed
9. Ape Me
10. Who Scored
11. Fambly
12. I Don't Wanna Be Around
13. Freddy and His Mother
14. Cold Boys
15. Clap for Alaska
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Dear reader, resist the urge to care too much about the RIYL section above. “But I was hoping this would sound like MxPx or Hot Water Music!!!” Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you. What listeners should expect with Fambly 42 is fifteen melodic punk bangers that come and go in about two minutes. In that regard, the album can be encapsulated by the hilariously awkward bridge from Flight of the Concords’s “Business Time”: “Making love for two minutes; when it’s with me, you only need two minutes because it’s so intense.” It’s not that Toys that Kill is inherently sexual; instead, the tracks need not be any longer than two minutes because of the melodic intensity of each of the songs. Fambly 42 features a half-hour of enjoyable punk intensity, but like a 2-minute sex session, once it’s over, it doesn’t hold much memorability.
“Mobbed by the 3’s” is certainly a great way to start off the album, as it comes rollicking out of the gate and features a nice chorus. However, the album shows its cards too quickly. There are very few moments of relief or contemplation to be had, let alone a sing-a-long chorus. Instead, the album comes across as what you could expect to hear blasting out of a literal garage band in the summer, albeit with some seriously skilled punks at that. There are a couple of the tracks that veer closer to garage rock/post-punk (like the excellent “Ape Me”), but the majority of the album’s running time is (fairly) fast-paced, in-and-out melodic punk.
There are some gems to be had from the album, and, when all is said and done, there is little to fully complain about while listening to the album; the major issue is the album is fun while it lasts, but once it’s finished, you aren’t sure you want to go back for more.
--Nick Senior
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