In which the preppy geeks of Buddy Holly grew a pair of big heavy balls. The album came out in 1996 and the wallop of guitars and drums that propelled opener Tired of Sex will have startled many, not to mention front man Rivers Cuomo's strangled yelps. The catchy tunes are still here, you just have to work harder with them. Second track in, Getchoo is a wonderfully malevolent pounder. It swaggers in on a heavy drum beat and grungy riffs.
Another arresting howl opens the heavy pop of No Other One. Why Bother? and Across the Sea are hard riffing pop songs, a bit like Nirvana playing nursery rhymes. El Scorcho might be the catchiest thing here it's kind of reminiscent of The Sweater Song off their first album. Unfortunately it ends with a fairly pointless acoustic strum, Butterfly which is completely out of place. But leaving that aside, this is a good poppy, yet heavy album.
