No More Songs About Sleep and

Expertly-crafted, percussive, high octane guitar rock with intelligent (often political) lyrics and great vocal harmonies on this Chicago-area band's 9th LP. Too subversive to rightly be called pop. Similar in spots to Pixies, Buzzcocks, Wall Of Voodoo, RFTC, and '80s post-grunge Steve Albini projects (which The Poster Children once were) such as Rapeman. Not a single weak song here. Start with 1, 4, 6, 7, 10.

=> 1. Hits the ground running with machine-gun guitar, then thunderous but oddly lilting drums. Nice, punky call-and-response vocals.
2. A tasty grunge-cum-Bo Diddly shuffle with insinuating, Devo-like vocals. Ends abruptly. (CD has video for this song.)
3. Fast, percussive, and off-balance with Jello-Biafra-like half-spoken vocals. False ending halfway through. "What's that on your breath? It's not crow or humble pie. Smells like revenge."
=> 4. Fast, high energy. Starts with high-speed monotonic solo guitar, then adds bass, then drums, then old-UK-two-note-siren-style guitar. Song keeps evolving. Surprise ending.
5. Medium tempo but high energy, lots of harmony. Old-style Poster Children. Lots of repetitive tension and release. False ending in middle, then surprise ending.
=> 6. Slow acoustic guitar with manic male vocals, then full band joins. Aah-ahh female backing vox. Totally Pixies! and that's a good thing.
=> 7. Wild & aggressive in a grunge-pop sort of way. Futuristic, 1984-esque vocals: "Citizens, you must trust the leader!"
8. Begins with tentative fuzz bass, then gets bouncy with new-wave, melodic guitar and harmony, sing-song vocals. "Yesterday, everything should have changed... for a moment we were one, and now it's gone."
9. Medium fast & nasty. Starts with a brief tone, then drumstick clicks, then kicks in becoming an anthemic, power-grunge lament.
=> 10. Fast & happy grunge pop with hand-claps and depressing lyrics about alcoholism and ruined lives. Super dance hit.
11. Medium fast, poppy and dynamic. Another props-to-Jello-Biafra number. Spoken verses plus sing-song chorus. But don't trip over those 5/4 measures they throw in during the bridge.
12. Fades in slowly. Medium tempo and minimal, spoken verse (again) and sing-song chorus (again). Reminds me of Wall Of Voodoo this time, but gets minimal and Television-like at the end. Fades out.