Album Review: Generation Y

Remember when bands such as Blink 182, Sum 41, Frenzal Rhomb, Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Reel Big Fish were the epitome of summer? Throwing the surfboards in the back of the wagon, cranking the tunes, and heading to the beach for an epic day in the sun with the boys and even the occasional girl?

That’s what I get reminiscing about when I hear Chazz Valentine’s wicked new album Generation Y.

Chazz had wicked success back in the early 2000’s with his band The Rabble and more recently with Flirting With Disaster. I was always a bit jealous of Chazz as he had this wicked cult following of literally hundreds of people who would turn up to shows he played with any band he was involved with. It was all totally warranted though – he puts on a wicked show, writes wicked tunes, and never fails to deliver. He is also a totally humble guy when you get chatting to him about it.

Some of the tracks such as Dear God are straight up punk, but then he throws in some quirky tunes such as Can’t Deny It which have organ melody lines – not something I can say I’ve ever been a fan of, but somehow Chazz has worked his magic and overlaid these into the tunes with minimal effort and maximum effect. There is even a splash of acoustic with Life In A Heartbeat which sort of has a Rise Against Hero Of War feel about it.

I don’t know many of the details about the album to be fair, but I do know that Chazz is a pretty awesome engineer/producer in his own right, and I suspect that he has produced and engineered, and probably even played most of the stuff if not all of the stuff on this album. One thing I definitely know for sure is that this is probably the best debut album I’ve had the privilege of reviewing.

For all of you die hard punk fans, it’s not as raw as 70’s punk, and I wouldn’t liken it to Sex Pistols, but I wouldn’t liken it to screamy punk either such as Story Of The Year. I would definitely say this album goes more head to head with the likes of No Cigar by Millencolin or MxPx’s Life In General.

One massive thumbs up from me. Very, very solid effort!