The release of Millencolin's 1996 album Life on a Plate represented Epitaph's first plunge into musical lands outside of North America. The experiment proved to be a successful one, with Millencolin becoming one of the label's most popular new acts, a distinction rightly gained in light of the band's technical proficiency and knack for sometimes goofy, sometimes serious melodic mayhem. 1994's Same Old Tunes . The material on this album isn't as effectively realized as the band's later work, but it's an entertaining indicator of progress nonetheless.
Songs span such diverse topics as urban loneliness, ultra- tough scenesters, and the art of slack.
There also seems to be some sort of banana motif operating, and admittedly, I haven't quite figured it out. Three of the songs mention bananas in some context and the album's cover shows a determined urchin using a banana as a gun. I guess we'll leave that one to Freud. I must admit, my motivation for evaluating music of this ilk is beginning to wane a bit, mostly because of its tendency to sound the same. But, to Millencolin's credit, they bring a genuine edge to their presentation, the seeds of which are abundantly evident in this earlier work.