The F-Ups
The F-Ups

(Capitol)

First Appeared in The Music Box, October 2004, Volume 11, #10

Written by T.J. Simon

If there’s a lesson to be learned from the self-titled, major-label debut by Minnesota’s The F-Ups, it’s this: It takes a lot more than Mohawk haircuts and a parental advisory sticker to be punk rockers. The slick, over-produced album alternatively sounds like Green Day or Third Eye Blind with a thicker, alterna-teen, radio-geared sheen, and its multi-track-layered vocal effects permeate inoffensive numbers such as Lazy Generation and Screw You. It’s not that The F-Ups is a bad band, but the whole collection feels as if it was constructed in a laboratory by corporate goons trying to tap into the angst-driven market populated by suburban youths. Totally devoid of anything remotely organic (or punk, for that matter), this album is designed to appeal to kids who want to feel like rebels while jumping wildly upon their moms’ beds. Oddly enough, the disc’s centerpiece is a speedy cover of Mott the Hoople’s All the Young Dudes, but it isn’t likely that anyone who is evenly remotely interested in this project would remember the far better original. In fact, the idea that any grown-up would ever buy this album for anything other than a bar mitzvah gift is simply inconceivable.

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Ratings

1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!

Copyright © 2004 The Music Box