Come All You Madmen Review

Release Date: Jun 17, 2008
Label: Side One Dummy
Genres: Punk Revival
Number Of Tracks: 12
On their fiery fourth album, Come All You Madmen, the Briggs play tight and they play sharp, expertly mixing sweat-filled aggression and heartfelt melody into twelve potent, fist-pumping tracks of folky, working-class punk.

Sound:	6
Lyrics:	5
Impression:	6
Overall rating:	5.7
Users rating:	4.8
Comments:	10

overall: 5.7

Featured review by: UG Team, on june 25, 2008

Sound: Come All You Madmen is the new record of LA street punks The Briggs. The sound of the album quite matches its title -- “in-your-face” intense music they’ve been crafting during the past six years and three albums.

The guys were writing the tracks for Come All You Madmen while one the road and I should say that it was a festive gig! Most of the CD is very joyful, even supposedly sad and tearful Not Alone sounds like a happy anthem. Thinking how the new record should sound, the guys decided there’s no need to make it sound boring and safe and pushed their own limits out of the comfort zone. As a result, listening to the album, you get an impression the guys never get upset or tired. The band manages to make punk out of folk -- endless heys and hoys -- they’ve definitely borrowed something from the pirates.

When it comes to music, you wouldn’t find here anything extraordinary -- the chords and tracks’ structures are pretty predictable. There are a few pretentious guitar solos -- like in Charge Into The Sun and Bloody Minds, but nothing impressive. The tracks have all kinds of catchy features -- even the claps instead of the drums in Mad Men. // 6

Lyrics and Singing: Now we came to the most awful part of this music. I’m really sorry for the fans of the band, but there’s hardly anything good to be said in this paragraph. The lyrics are as clichéd as the song titles - from the moment of the album called Come All You Madmen predictably starts with the track Mad Men, the similar way in continues -- This Is L.A., Not Alone, Oblivion. The guys try to touch all popular subjects, such as politics (“So farewell to the king, farewell to the throne / These are the strangest times I’ve ever known.” in Mad Men), love relationship (What Was I Thinking), tribute to their city (“This Is L.A. our city, our home / Los Angeles we’ll never walk alone” in This Is L.A.). Unfortunately somebody else has already sung about each one of these subjects and they did it better.

Vocals are not better than the lyrics. I bet you sing as good as Joey LaRocca even if the only place you dare to sign in is your shower. Yell loud, louder, even louder -- that’s the formula of LaRocca’s singing. But there’s one advantage in this -- singing along you wouldn’t feel guilty for spoiling the song with your vocals. // 5

Impression: All the record is so intense and monotonous at the sane time, you feel exhausted after listening to it. For a sophisticated listener it would be a nightmare to get to the end the CD. The music is plain and raw and makes you wonder if they even made a couple of takes when recording. The biggest wonder of all of it is of course Joey LaRocca’s ignorant signing. He started as the band’s drummer and I think he sounded much better behind the drum set. The music would be a perfect fit for a party with a lot of booze as it all pretty much sounds like a bunch of guys yelling during a drunken brawl. Sing-along and yell-along are very welcomed. // 6

- Kosh (c) 2009

Comments

[conkersbfd182]

Screw you UG! i saw these guys live with the Street Dogs and they were so much fun! This is an album for kids who just enjoy their punk straight up

[Zakkmann]

conkersbfd182 wrote:

This is an album for kids who just enjoy their punk straight up

i second that!

[TheKingisDead]

This is easily one of my favorite albums from 2008 thus far. With so many lackluster releases from some of my favorite bands (Anti-Flag, Millencolin, etc.) this was very refreshing to me. Joey's vocals are a lot better than a lot of people give him credit for. He has a masterful sense of melody these days, in comparison to their last 3 albums. The lyrics convey a lot of emotion, and some tracks are reminiscent of other punk rock classics (This is LA sounding like a throw back to Cock Sparrer and the like). This review comes off very pretentious, and very poorly thought out. I was never a big fan of their earlier stuff, but this CD made them one of my favorite bands. I kinda want to post my own review now so someone can get a better sense of what this record actually is.

[andrewb610]

(“So farewell to the king, farewell to the throne / These are the strangest times I’ve ever known.” in Mad Men), love relationship (What Was I Thinking), tribute to their city (“This Is L.A. our city, our home / Los Angeles we’ll never walk alone” in This Is L.A.). Unfortunately somebody else has already sung about each one of these subjects and they did it better.

yeah i got to agree here, Jim Morrison did a much better job with the line "this is the strangest life I've ever known" in,as every doors fan knows, Waiting for the Sun

[andrewb610]

the whole album sounds like a bad cover of the Dropkick Mupheys who are so much better, which is more evident in the fact that they're an east coast punk band. I'm pretty sure that "This is L.A. is a bad attempt to try to do for L.A. what the Dropkick Murphey's "Tessie"

[andrewb610]

.....did for boston

[A6StringWorld]

i have to disagree with this review, this album is one my favorites and is a lot of fun. The guitar riffs are cool and fit perfectly. I agree that the subjects get old but still the briggs are a good band and if you like good punk you would like this album.

[slainterock]

I'm curious as to what constitutes a "sophisticaed listener." Should I listen to my music with a pinky finger in the air?

[brigbator]

the fact that they said "Sophisticated Listener" just means that the douche bag is a music snob and just don't understand punk rock. FOR ONE THING Jason LaRocca actually sings on most of this album, and I think his voice is fantastic. (for punk that is) I think the reviewer was completely bias and should be reviewing more "Sophisticated" music...

[barroomhero]

I agree with brigbator. Whoever wrote this review clearly has no understanding of punk. This album may be a slight cliche but it is also one of the best albums i have heard in a very long time.
Oh and the dropkick murphys are one of my favourite bands and i don't feel the slighest bit like this album is try to 'cover' them.