Ballads from the Revolution

Album Review

Good Riddance certainly hasn't softened on their third album. If anything, they play harder, louder and faster — the tunes detonate, one after another, like a volley of mortar fire. Still, the band know how to incorporate pure pop sweetness into their relentless assault without ever coming close to cheesiness; rather, the broken-heart sentiments of songs like "Jeannie" and "Not With Him" are made more poignant by their gruff delivery. There are some worn out chord progressions (the riff to "Salt" has been heard at least a thousand times before), and some rote musical moments, but all the intangibles are there: energy, conviction, and sincerity. Singer Russ Rankin, always deeply suspicious and mistrustful of the government, apathy, and conformity, attacks those targets with articulate vehemence as usual.