The Socially Retarded – As One Voice

There are certain CDs that when you see then you immediately know you’ll like what you get. There’s no real explanation, just a gut feeling you get when looking at a brand new CD that makes you go “man, this CD will rule.” That was my first impression for As One Voice by The Socially Retarded; and when I threw the nine track album into my CD player I quickly realized that my initial gut feeling was right once again.

Politically charged and angst ridden, the California three piece play a style reminiscent of a more melodic and slower No Trigger with a vocal style similar to a much younger Tom DeLonge. It’s raw and rough, unpolished and unforgiving yet tinged with a melodic feel that creates fist pounding, drum thumping anthems. The trio continually spit out quick sing-along anthems flowing with socially conscious lyrics like “So now you’re stuck at home with three kids of your own! I bet you wish you could go back? You’ve probably wrecked your dreams, Things aren’t as bad as they seem! Just don’t look back! Try to fix what’s wrong, try to help everyone!”

Merging in styles of the mid-ninities punk sound and the late seventies explosion, The Socially Retarded are equipped with catchy riffs, steady drumming and a vocalist that is strong and stands out by simultaneously being abnormally familiar and oddly unique. It’s fast and angry, non-complacency and still uses shock values to progress forward. From the unusual name to songs about bombing the oval office,As One Voice steps up and asks the questions that many are too afraid to ask in a fashion that punk fans have left behind only for a sea of whiny emo crap.

This is an album whose biggest fault is it’s length. Clocking in at just over thirty minutes and a mere nine tracks, As One Voice seems to end prematurely and you feel you want more. They won’t make it into the mainstream but will instead carve a unique niche for themselves in the underground for people who love the melodic hardcore sound heavily mixed with mid-ninities pop-punk melodicness. In the end though, what I think makes no difference because they summarize it best in Beer Song as they spit “Maybe a beer or two, maybe a case will do, I don’t care at all! Fuck what people say! Doesn’t matter anyway Cause I don’t care;” it’s that kind of attitude that makes this album so good in the first place.