Reel Big Fish – Turn the Radio Off
welcome back to the Skaject folks! this week, i’m checking out the 1996 record from Reel Big Fish, Turn the Radio Off.
as i mentioned in the Everything Sucks review, im not super fond of RBF albums as much as i do enjoy their tracks, but i think Turn the Radio Off is amongst their strongest.
part of that is that theyre taking everything from Everything Sucks that worked and bringing it back. 6 of the tracks from that record end up here – more than a 3rd of the record. id say all of those are improved here except Skatanic, where i REALLY dont like the bridge on this version. many of these are like, classic RBF tunes – Trendy and Beer are the big ones for sure.
but i think the new tracks are probs the best in the record. they lead with Sell Out, one of their biggest singles and a strong track to kick this album off with. She Has a Girlfriend Now is another v strong track here, featuring Monique Powell of Save Ferris – real good, even if im being a bit charitable in my reading here.
a big chunk of this record grapples with being an unsuccessful band – the first three songs are about this, and being trendy, struggling to make a name for themselves, and just being a band come up a lot throughout. i think with a bit more development this coulda been a solid throughline, but i think in many places it lacks enough self-reflection or authenticity to be a strong album on that front, and then when it fails to be humorous…. as i also mentioned on the previous album, there’s places where the lyricism here just falls flat. there’s an undercurrent of like, misogyny and entitlement in many tracks that is played for a laugh (like in Everything Sucks) or is not particularly offensive (the aggressive anti-vegetarianism of Say Ten, is more stupid than anything else), but there are a few cases here where it crosses a line – Skatanic is an example of the edgy style repeating from the prior record and not uh. not working well. parts of the instrumentals here are good but the rest i could leave behind easily.
faves – Sell Out, Trendy, She Has a Girlfriend Now, Beer, 241
dislikes –
Turn the Radio Off – 5/10
next week, our album is Skankin’ Pickle’s The Green Album!
previous: Sublime | next: The Green Album
previous Reel Big Fish release: Everything Sucks | next: Cheer Up!
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