I've been sitting on this one for a couple weeks. It's not that I don't like the album--I love it--but there's this nagging question in my head about an album that borrows from all sorts of pop punk influences from the last 40 years without quite escaping pastiche.

Billy Liar Crisis Actor (Pirates Press)

Ah, fuckit.

And that last bit is a bit too far. Yes, there's a whole lot of Social D meets Rancid meets Green Day meets Alkaline Trio . . . and the parts don't distill into something unique. But the writing is solid, and the attitude is solidly snotty. There's also that whole reflecting back across the Atlantic thing (Billy Liar hails from Edinburgh), though with punk the reflections both ways have been nearly constant for more than 50 years.

The sound is suitably gritty, and the melodies are rough-hewn and unprocessed. And as an unintentional historian of punk (or at least a restator--is that a thing?), Billy Liar cuts a raggedy profile. Strangely perfect.

Kinda instantly enjoyable to my ears, but I'm totally primed for this sort of thing. The key here is the writing, which is consistently great. The energetic performances drive the songs to a higher level. Same old same old? Maybe. But top shelf, in any case.

Jon Worley