Reviews

Los Angeles’ own Left Alone return with its third album, which kicks off to a fantastic start with “Spiked with Pain,” a powerful dose of punk in the old Rancid vein with a dash of Bad Religion thrown in for ol’ time’s sake. The band plows through material quickly as they can, but that’s one of the great things about the band because they know where everything will work and they don’t try to sugarcoat anything with bullshit. What you get here is just pure, great punk rock.

One of the many standouts on the album is “Sad Story,” where the band talks about the gang infestation of their hometown. While the subject matter is a bit touchy, the song is catchy as hell and the keyboards remind me a bit of early Goldfinger. On “Porcelain,” frontman Elvis Cortez comes off sounding a bit like Mike Ness, which is a nice touch and makes the song all the more powerful.

“Bombs Away” is one of the coolest punk songs of the year, hands down, because of the simplicity of the lyrics and also the sincerity of where they’re coming from, which is something everyone can relate to once they hear it.

The quickness with which the material comes from is enough to knock someone out of their seat because it’s all so good, with only about two exceptions. “Wishing Well” is a quick little romp complete with an organ that would sound perfect on the radio.

All in all the band knows exactly what they’re doing and with its self-titled third album, the band is at its peak and it can only get better from here. Near the end of the record, “Something for Nothing” is again, catchy as hell and this album should be just the beginning of the band’s reign as punk kings.