Pennywise - About Time

This is a companion blog to go with the one I just started, that I call Punk Rock Wisdom. Punk Rock Wisdom is an idea for a blog that has been in my head for quite a while, and while I was writing the first post, which was also in my head for quite a while, I thought a companion blog would be interesting, where I essentially review the album that the song I blogged about came from. I have also been meaning to have a music review site for ages, since before web logs, or blogs exploded in popularity, like Pogs (never really played, but I inevitably had some!), and hockey cards a good many years back! Okay, no more cheesy pop culture references, unless it is called for in the specific review. So this should help me get the punk rock aspect going, and eventually a music review blog, as that is easier to maintain than a website these days. I'd still recommend learning HTML, and going from there, as it cannot hurt. I need to brush up on mine, and get more into CSS, etc.

Alright, the boring part is done.

Closing in on 13 years since About Time was released (13 June 1995), and I definitely think it has stood the test of time. Start to finish this is an excellent punk rock album. Starts out fast, and stays that way all the way to the end, catchy, melodic, positive messages, all in a little over 30 minutes, how can you go wrong with a punk rock record!

This is the third long player from Hermosa Beach's own Pennywise. It starts off with "Peaceful Day", on a mid tempo note, but quickly picks up. After having listened to the album in its entirety, it's worth listening again while following along with the the included lyrics.

Lyrics, as I noted above are optimistic, possibly a theme, or something I picked up anyway, is to live life to the fullest. "Waste of Time", as blogged about is about not wasting your time thinking about what is or is not to come in post life. "Perfect People", probably one of the fan favourites, is about not caring about all the so called perfect people out there, the hollywood (intentionally not capitalised) types, and so one. "Every Single Day" is pretty much as I have been saying, to live every single day, and not worry about past mistakes, as they cannot be changed, rather learn from them. It is also apparently Fletcher's favourite Pennywise song. It also has some good woahs and ahhs, as Bad Religion and oohs and ahhs. "Freebase" (starts side two on the audio cassette, and I imagine vinyl) delves into warning people to stay away from cocaine, and drugs. All the tracks are good, but another fan favourite, and one I like too, is "Same old Story". "Try", is a good song about trying, essentially doing your best, and getting on with things. "I Won't Have It" borrows a Zach de la Rocha line, "You got a bullet in your head". "Killing Time", is essentially how we see the bad things in life right in front of us on our television screens.

Definitely a quality new school punk rock album.