“gadjits”
The Gadjits
Wish We Never Met
Hellcat/Epitaph
What an unfortunate title choice – the Gadjits are just asking for critics like me to play off it when panning their new album. And unfortunately, I will be panning it, as after being impressed by their previous effort, At Ease , I was really disappointed in this largely unlistenable mess. I couldn’t help but notice that the five songs (out of fourteen) that were listenable shared three distinguishing traits – they were all written by Zach Phillips (one of the three brothers that make up the nucleus of the Gadjits), they all feature pleasantly gravelly vocals (again, I assume, courtesy of Zach), and they all sound vaguely inspired by Rancid’s ska side. The remaining songs, written by brother Brandon, are almost the direct opposite – Brandon’s voice couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, his lyrics are all vaguely misogynistic, and his tunes (with the possible exception of the fairly witty album-closer, “Jenny Jones (Leave the Death Rock Kids Alone)”) lack the hooks of his brother’s. The twangy guitar that accents several of his tracks is a nice touch, but not enough to save them. Overall, it makes for a lackluster record with few bright spots to recommend it. Get the good tracks online as MP3s, and leave the disc at the store.
Epitaph Records, 2789 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90026
