Last Tuesday – Curbsquirrels – Composition – Review

Last Tuesday/Curbsquirrels

Composition (Dug)
by Lauren Bussard

Ok, I’ll be honest: I really can’t deal with Christian music. I know I know, I do like MxPx, but they’re the only exception. Now I will admit that Composition, a split from Dug Records’ (which formed in 2000 to promote bands that play “Hope Rock” [um, what??!]) bands Last Tuesday and Curbsquirrels is pretty fun, and definitely hits at the heart of fast poppy punk, but the problem is that right as I start to get into the awesome energy of this 10-song album, words like “Jesus” and “Show me how to walk in your spirit” jump out at me and I’m immediately thrown back into the real world where I take great pains to avoid being preached to.

Aside from the God stuff, here’s the other problem I find with this album: None of these songs really seem to be about anything. My boyfriend claims that none of the songs I listen to are ever about anything (we’ll save the debate over the merits of pop-punk for later), but I seriously can’t glean any shred of a plot (aside from the Jesus stuff) from the songs on this disc. There is one song, “Social Butterfly” by Last Tuesday, that seems to be the story of a girl giving into the powers of booze and hormones and having (GASP!) pre-marital sex and then lamenting the loss of her virginity and her evil spiral into hell, but I don’t classify that as an acceptable song theme. If you take it as a joke, it’s pretty amusing… but I don’t think that Last Tuesday is laughing. Oh well.
(www.dugrecords.com)