Alien Crime Syndicate
Ten Songs In The Key Of Betrayal
The Control Group
There is only one type of person who will truly appreciate the contents of this small, reflective disc. That is, if you’re that dude who regrets missing the last Kiss reunion tour or fondly remembers the party rock anthems of bands like Poison, Alien Crime Syndicate just might be worth checking out. Those of us who don’t solidly fit the above description, on the other hand, will feel like we’ve been anally probed long before getting halfway through the album. And I don’t mean that in a good way.
ACS reeks of unabashed arena rock worship, but watered down and delivered with a little bit of nerd-pop, a la early Weezer. On paper this doesn’t sound too bad, and on the tracks that focus on more of the poppy aspects it works fairly well, particularly on “Wake Up Theo” (which almost sounds like a mediocre Creeper Lagoon track). But the embarrassingly bad wannabe-retro arena rock influences are way too prominent to make this album listenable as a whole. Lyrics like “We’ve got chicks with juicy lips” (“The American Way”) seem carefully constructed to make your average music critic want to hunt down each and every one of their leather-pants-wearing-power-chord-playing asses and choke them with their own hair extensions. And don’t even get me started about “The Hustla Life.”
Call me a cynical indie rock snob, but if this kind of big, stupid rock sound used to be glamorous, I’m glad I was either too young and/or too nerdy to be in on it, and I certainly don’t plan to start now. But then again, I’ve never been cool anyway, so what do I know? Alien Crime Syndicate is power pop party rock along the lines of Andrew W.K. If that kind of stuff is your thing, enjoy.
Alien Crime Syndicate: http://www.aliencrimesyndicate.com
