Jive
2006
The Great Burrito Extortion Case
About This Album
It's hard to dislike Bowling for Soup but it's hard to really be enthusiastic about them, either. They've been cranking out happy, hooky, humorous pop-punk since 1998, slowly crossing over into the mainstream without ever truly registering in the public consciousness, the way that blink-182 did before them or Fall Out Boy did later. They've racked up a Grammy nomination and a genuine hit -- the quite clever "1985," a 2004 single that captured Gen-X's bewilderment at suddenly hitting their thirties very well -- but have managed to not quite be recognizable, a situation that their sixth album The Great Burrito Extortion Case is unlikely to change. At its core, it's not much different than what came before: it's still proudly goofy, poppy punk, stuff that's fun without quite being memorable. And while it's hardly worse than what they've done before, there is a subtle difference in tone on The Great Burrito Extortion Case: the group is seeming a little long in the tooth. It's not so much that they're reworking the same sound again and again -- they're a punk-pop band, so that kind of repetition is their stock in trade -- but their pop culture references seem a little shelf-worn and out of date, the product of a band that was in high school in the '80s.
Track List (try tracks 2,3,4,7 and 10)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.

 
report abuse