Retox

“Congratulations, You Are Good Enough”
YPLL (Epitaph Records)
release date: 5/28/2013
by Scott Hefflon

Justin Pearson of The Locust returns with the kinda edgy shit people call art punk. You can love or loathe the long song titles and “yeah, I’m really well-read and smart’n’shit,” cuz if it’s about the music, howzabout we focus on that, hmmm? “Congratulations, You Are Good Enough” is frantic without being grind, spastic without being random, and while preachy and iconic and all that cultural hoo-ha, his voice and politics are no more irritating than Jello Biafra’s were in classic Dead Kennedys barbed punk. Great to keep a few bands like this around, just hose down the also-rans, cuz this stuff is hard to do well, and a watered-down popular movement of this genre will make emo seem bearable.
(www.epitaph.com)