Huntingtons – Darlington – Review

Huntingtons/Darlington

split (Melted)
by Scott Hefflon

Sweet. Two overly-prolific punk-pop newcomer hotshots dropping eight or nine songs on a split totaling 45 minutes. And finally someone uses the split concept for the cover as well – a cute chick, Jenny Jemison, holding a red bowling ball (hell, it could be blue, right?), although I’d rather see her do a split, ya know? Anyway, with unreleased material from both bands, this is quite a slice. While I’ve actually been kinda bummed by Darlington‘s recent thick production, two outta their last three have been this way, so maybe this is their new thing and I just oughtta stop craving more Girltroversy (yeah, right!). Without being an over-polished turd (like far too many to mention who rely on Ryan Green Production but don’t have the songs when you get down to it), Girltroversy was crisp and clean, energetic and kinda silly, supplying both the riffs you wanna jam along with and the lyrics you wanna memorize. But lyrically, Darlington still whip out the sarcasm and the cheese dip (“I wanna make out, paint my fingernails glitter, and kissy kiss smoochy smooch”), name-drop the cool bands left and right, and write a “let’s hook up” song to Donna A. that incorporates The Donnas’ own lyrics. So while nothing strikes me out-right like “This song sounds just like the last one, and the next one and the one after that one,” the simple fact that they base a song on Back to the Future‘s classic McFlyism “I want to be your density” shows Darlington’s still got it.

As for Huntingtons (what’s with the “ton” thing?), well, I have to say that, especially in comparison, they sound vocally limp. While I guess it’s kinda the Ramonesy thing to do, when laid next to such a quirky imp as Cris/Christy/Brigitte Darlington, Huntingtons just sound slow and unenthusiastic. First time I heard their cover of Darlington’s classic, “Judy Jetson,” I thought “Ugh, this is the worst Darlington’s ever sounded,” and they even played some of the notes wrong! In retaliation, Darlington covered Huntingtons’ “Jackie is an Atheist” better than it’s probably ever sounded.While it wasn’t really my intention to bag on Huntingtons, cuz I sometimes kinda like them, when their not-best-work is placed side-by-side with the modern-day equivalent of the Violent Femmes, well, they suffer the comparison.
(www.meltedrecords.com)