The Lovely Lads score some major points with me right away by using Pulp Fiction themed artwork in their layout for The Best You've Got. Sure it isn't the most original idea ever in the history of recorded music or even in punk rock and hardcore, but it beats seeing CD cover after cover of Jacob Bannon wannabe skull and blood Photoshop massacre. It's even better than the typical varsity font with crowd singing along shot.
However, after that Boston's Lads don't score many more points with me. The Best You've Got is twelve tracks of mid-tempo street punk with a slight hardcore influence, some minor mosh parts and some gang vocals. It's not that the songs on here are horrible or anything, they're just sort of there like a legless armless baby just wanting to be held and loved. There isn't much on this album that I can latch onto. There isn't a memorable hook or a catchy chorus that will have me humming along to them on the train.
Maybe I'm not the best person to review The Best You've Got because I'm not the biggest aficionado on street punk. So as far as I know this could be the best thing since...what? The Business? I really don't know. All I do know is that I hear some the same damn tempo being used in the same songs except for the Intent to Injure cover, which is the fastest track on here. The opening track, "We're Not on Your Side" shows some piss and vigor urging people that don't get along with The Lovely Lads to suck their collective dicks. And "Dead Horse" is a catchy song that had me doing a little bit of pogo action in my chair. The rest of The Best You've Got beats the hell out of the proverbial before mentioned mare with its lackluster playing and monotone rhythms that couldn't move an epileptic in a Grand Mal seizure during a 0.5 earthquake. I even scoffed at the "1, 2 fuck you" part in "Misery". No buddy, fuck you, for being tiresome and repetitive. Even this song hits a new low with the overused cliché sound clip of clinking glass and random shouting that I've heard on a million drunken punk albums before I even heard of The Lovely Lads.
Sure, maybe I was a letdown because of the sweet Pulp art and I was hoping I was going to get a sweet rip roaring street punk rock that will want me lace up my Docs and go drink dark beer at some bar that has been owned by the same Irish family since their boat showed up on Ellis Island. There isn't anything on The Best You've Got that makes me want to go shave my head with a straight razor or even half heartily pump my fist in the air. If you are into street punk you will probably be all over this but for me I'm just a bored and uninspired by the constant mid-tempo stagnant drumming, the cute one-note guitar solos, and angry lyrics that don't sound angry at all. I'm just going to have to pass on this.
