USELESS ID – Symptoms

Israeli melodic punk rockers Useless ID have found a new home for their latest album Symptoms, now a part of the Fat Wreck Chords roster. Symptoms marks the band’s first album in nearly four years and was produced by Descendents’ drummer Bill Stevenson.

The move to Fat seems like a no-brainer considering the band’s rough-edged pop-punk sound. The album starts off on a promising note with the harder edged opener “Live or Die.” The impressive start continues through the second song “Before It Kills,” and the more melodic cut “Normal With You.” Unfortunately, the flow of the album slows and becomes stale at times due to the repetitious nature of Useless ID’s songwriting (verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus/end of song). The album features very little instrumental exploration beyond basic unison drum and guitar breakdowns.

Lyrically, most of the material deals with issues surrounding relationships and self-discovery – basically, very angst-y subject matter (not surprising considering the roots and influences of this band). After a few spins, I will admit that the material becomes more and more appealing to the ears. Don’t get me wrong, Symptoms isn’t a bad album in the sense of an overall product. The catchiness of the music definitely will appeal to those who dig bands like No Use For A Name (the cut “Somewhere” sounds like NUFAN), and the production under Stevenson gives a touch of that trademark Descendents sound. While it’s not terrible, Symptoms offers up a sound that’s been done many times before and the unoriginal territory taken here will be sure to put some people off. To put it plainly, it’s a very safe album.

(Fat Wreck Chords, PO Box 193690, San Francisco, CA 94119)