90 Day Men don t pander to hooks or melody or even form for that matter. This would be difficult listening if it weren t for the rock. Yeah, these guys listened to the Birthday Party a lot, but they re not trying to be the Birthday Party. There is a difference.
Some songs tend to meander too long, but there s a payoff most of the time.
The lyrics are a stream of consciousness blend of anger and apathy. 90 Day Men mix up the angular punk formula with artsy no wave to keep your ears from drifting off. The result is a paranoid blast of clanging guitars, methodical bass lines, and syncopated drums. The songs are convoluted and shift in unexpected directions, and you never know when the guitars are about to squeal. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the sequencing either.