Album Reviews

- by Tom Dumarey

The Decline is not just the longest NOFX song known to man, it is also the name of one of Australia’s finest skate punk bands. Never heard of them before? Well, your loss. They have been cranking out face-melting releases since 2008 and are now back with album number four.

‘Flash Gordon Ramsay Street’ comes with a whopping’ 17 new tracks that range in length between 5 seconds and an all out epic 4 minutes and take cues from fellow Australians Frenzal Rhomb, NOFX, Lagwagon and all the other 90ies Epi/Fat bands we fell in love with back in the day. And the best thing about The Decline? Rather than making it all sound like a throwback or a retread, they take all of the genre’s staples and manage to make it sound fresh.

Lyrically, they are all over the place. A recipe for vegan buffalo wings, the property market, The Legend Of Zelda and Marxist theories. It’s all here. It would be easy to dismiss The Decline as a fun band that likes to goof off. And well, you’d be partially right. But you would also be selling them short because they actually have a lot of valid points to get across.

If you are like me and like your melodic punk rock snotty, urgent, fast, fun and melodic, then ‘Flash Gordon Ramsay Street’ is just the album for you. The Decline have got all of the above in spades. And then some.

Track listing:

1. Bullet With Buffalo Wings
2. Brovine
3. It Was Always You
4. War
5. Verge Collection
6. Summerbucht
7. Changing My Shoes
8. Smashed Avo
9. Real Again
10. High Extinction
11. I’m Not Alright
12. Don’t Jump A Giftshark In The Mouth
13. Bahia De Verano
14. Get Hyrule, Save Zelda
15. The More You Know
16. Your Funeral
17. Josh