Album Reviews

‘Half Album’ is the 5-song epilogue to the Single and Double albums NOFX respectively released in 2021 and 2022. And looking at their recent output, I’m pretty sure it’s not really the band’s final release. What will be next? Probably another live album of their final show. Maybe gospel or disco renditions of NOFX songs. Who knows. But if ‘Half Album’ is anything to go by, I’m not giddy with anticipation for whatever is next.

In a very unlike NOFX move, ‘Half Album’ starts off with a piano ballad about some guy called Brett who fakes cancer in order to hang out with bands and score free merch. Funny lyrics, not a very memorable song. ‘I’m A Rat’ on the other hand is the most NOFX-iest song of the bunch along with the rearranged version of the Cokie The Clown song ‘The Queen Is Dead’ that nobody was waiting for. Fast-paced and packing the kind of riffs NOFX built their entire career around. ‘Humblest Man In The World’ sees the band taking things in a slightly different direction with a somewhat garage-y sound, making it this release’s most interesting song. Which can’t be said for the dragged out way too long closer ‘The Last Drag,’ which goes on for over six minutes and has Fat Mike singing the line ‘this is my detox’ around 300 times. Probably about as painful to sit through as an actual detox.

In the press packet Fat Mike asks “Was it worth spending five years finishing the five songs on my double album project that I thought were the worst of the bunch? Was it a good idea to spend so much time raising the runts of the litter?” Well… like Fat Mike says in this release’s final song, ‘don’t ask the question, if you don’t want the answer’.

If you need to complete your NOFX collection, you might consider picking this one up. Otherwise, feel free to simply carry on with your day.