In my new feature Dollar Bin Reviews, I visit the record store and choose a CD from the dollar bin to listen to. The results are either very good or disastrous–but at least I have a lot of interesting new music.
Prophetic album title? O hoax? You decide.
This album (EP) is sort of a cheat. The Ataris released this EP before 1997′s Anywhere But Here, the EP previews two songs that were to be released on that album: “San Dimas High School Football Rules” and “That Special Girl.” I knew I liked those two songs, and I knew I liked the band, so I was pretty sure I’d like Look Forward To Failure.
In the late ’90s and early 2000′s pop-punk had a certain sound that was pretty common and The Ataris were no exception. You could also throw a rock and hit a pop punk band, I think I hit Pete Wentz once or twice in the back of the head, but I digress. This EP is 6 solid pop-punk love songs. Despite the common theme, the songs do not get repetitive. It’s like the band wrote a song about a different girl each time–from Clare Danes (“My So Called Life”) to that girl that just keeps breaking up with you (“Between You and Me”) It’s something that Ican listen to over and over and not get tired of. Well worth the 50 cents that I spent on it.
Being that there’s only 6 songs on the EP, there’s not much more to say about it. It’s standard, yet strong, pop-punk–something that’s right up my alley. Going back and listening to these albums now is like going back to visit high school friends. You think you’ve moved on, made new friends but then you realized just how much you missed them.
