Album Reviews

Mad Caddies are back with their first new album in seven years. This one’s called “Dirty Rice” and comes with 12 new songs that come with more of a poppy, laid-back vibe than ever before. I mean, I can still remember the first time I heard “Quality Soft Core” and “Duck And Cover” where the band simply blew me away with their horns (get it?). They sounded downright manic back then!

Since then the band has fooled around with a multitude of styles… remember the pirate-core of “Rock The Plank”? Or the Dixieland inluences of “Just One More”? Pretty much the only consistent factor was that I found myself less and less interested with every single new release.

Now, did seven years of downtime help? Not really, this time around… I dunno, it just sounds stale and so incredibly easy-going it’s like listening to the Indolent Caddies. The only punky tunes on here are “Love Myself” and “Bring It Down” and even they sound tame. I understand that you want to evolve as a band and they’ll probably find a new audience with this new laid-back sound (after all, how many ska punk kids can there still be out there?) but I’ll just listen to “The Holiday Has Been Cancelled” again instead.