The new NOFX is pretty good

If you are reading this, chances are you already know who NOFX are, so no introduction is really necessary. Well actually, if you are reading this, it's more likely that you were trying to find a zip or rar of the new album. There is none here I'm afraid. Just me rambling on despite planning on keeping this intro short.

'nofx self-entitled blogspot mediafire rar zip download leak' you say?

There aren't many NOFX albums I don't love. Some of their early stuff is a bit too raw for me in parts, but everything that came after that is gold. Even 45 or 46..., their b-sides album is one of my favourites. Punk In Drublic is probably my most played, The Decline is a punk epic and choosing between the rest is like choosing between your kids. If your kids have inexplicably become successful, relatively well-off men-children.

Self Entitled is the first album since Coaster, which is probably my least favourite NOFX album in decades. I really like War On Errorism and Wolves.. but Coaster was just a bleak affair, without the memorable songs that we are accustomed to. Not that Fat Mike and Co give a Valium what I think, or anyone else really (at least that's how they like to portray themselves), but Self Entitled is a different animal.

I'm not sure if the band still have their finger on the pulse of society and politics, but they certainly brandish a  needle to irritate the skin of America. Releasing their album on September 11, writing songs about solving terrorism with hookers and still feeling the need to write anti-christian songs, they have lost little of the political and social commentary barbed with "oh no he di'nt" satire they are famous for. I still think they have lost their way slightly. I can't imagine why Fat Mike is so annoyed about religion when he can just avoid it like the rest of us for the most part, and songs about Reagan and Thatcher (Ronnie and Mags) are well, clearly outdated. (You can sort of blame them for the recession, I guess. Maybe.)

Elsewhere though, it's par for the course for NOFX as one good song follows another with little or no filler. She Didn't Lose Her Baby combines the gritty lyrics of The Irrationality of Rationality, without staggering into the sermon territory that You're Wrong dwelled in.

It is a classic NOFX song in many respects, sticking rigidly to the 'fast drum beat + catchy chord progressions + melodic vocals teetering just on the edge of vocal range' that we have come to love.

Meanwhile, Cell Out seems to be the story of Fat Mike being told by a girl that he's a poser. Presumably the song is his way of pointing out the irony of the situation or something. It's hard to take a sarcastic drug addict at his word but I'd like to think the stories in his songs actually happened and that writing this song, he's over the traumatic experience. Either way it's a fun song that uses a tiny bit of synth to good effect.

My Sycophant is a high-energy affair that harks back to a simpler time for the band, where a chorus could be one line and Melvin was allowed shout/sing over the end of the song. Better still, this is mixed with their improved song writing skills and it's a real grower of a song.

Then there's 'I've Got One Jealous Again, Again', which is an odd mix of depressing, catchy, self deprecating and uplifting. Fans of the band will get the reference, I'm giving this post about 60% at this stage, I'm sleepy.

The most important thing is that most of the songs are FAST, BITING and FUN.