Audacity of Hype

Personnel: Jello Biafra (vocals); Ralph Spight (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Kimo Ball (guitar); Jon Weiss (drums).
Musically, this album is surprisingly solid. Career provocateur Jello Biafra has assembled a hell of a band behind him, including Faith No More bassist Billy Gould, guitarists Ralph Spight and Kimo Ball, and drummer Jon Weiss. These songs are punk in the acid-fried spirit of riff-heavy acts like Radio Birdman, the MC5, and the Stooges, not Green Day or blink-182. Indeed, tracks like "New Feudalism" and "Clean as a Thistle" have more raw power than Iggy & co. were able to muster on the legacy-poisoning THE WEIRDNESS. The big problem, of course, remains Biafra himself. His voice is an astonishingly polarizing instrument; for every person who finds his high-pitched barks and ululations captivating, five more run from the room.