Menace to Sobriety
The astonishingly and presumably deliberately inept artwork of this debut from Californian skate punks OPM helps create a carefully contrived image of a bunch of lads intent on loafing about, doing as little as possible. The threesome's modus operandi--which involves sun, sex, tattoos, getting stoned, and traveling the streets on four small wheels--is cemented by the opening tracks "Stash Up" (a paean to smoking grass and not giving a flying one for anything) and "Heaven Is a Halfpipe" (a surprisingly catchy sing-along about the joys of skateboarding).Menace to Sobriety's boisterous, good-time feel sprawls across its 15 tracks like a teenager on a particularly comfortable sofa, its bleach-top college-rock roots (Blink 182,Sugar Ray) regularly spiced up by Latino piano and horns, ska rhythms, hip-hop textures, and noisy raps.--Mike Pattenden