CD: Self-titled Artist:The Hung Ups Label: Self-Released Rating: 4/5 Best Song: Klepto Reviewer: Bobby Gorman

Sometimes a CD just works. There’s no hidden agenda, no hidden meaning, nothing mind blowing nor anything life changing about the CD. Instead, it just works. There’s enthusiasm, sincerity and just solid song after solid song that work well enough together to let the listener escape the minutiae of everyday life if even only for the briefest of moments.

There’s no real reason why – the CD just works. It is, as Reverend Peyton so eloquently put it, real. In a world full of margarine, every once in a while you get an album that is just truly butter.

The Hung Ups are that butter. They are the real deal and while they won’t change your life or become your next go-to band, their self-titled release is still damn impressive and unexplainably fun to listen to.

Now, I guess you’re wondering what this sounds like. Well, the simple answer is pop-punk and the complex answer is still pop-punk. This is fast, snotty, fun, energetic pop-punk. Its Dear Landlord meets Screeching Weasel with some old school Blink182 thrown in too. Dead Milkmen? Descendents? Yeah, you go throw those comparisons into the pot too – and it’ll all work.

Songs about drinking, partying, girls, pizza and skateboarding fill up this twenty minute onslaught and you couldn’t ask for anything more than that. Speed Bomb is one of the fastest of the bunch, really arching back to the Milo Goes To College sound but with a interesting ska fused bridge and introduction to spice things up.  Get A Life has the hooks to pull you in while Anywhere With You has a slight Teenage Bottlerocket guitar vibe but with much rawer vocals. Klepto has a darker vibe that would fit nicely on Springman Records.

As a complete package, The Hung Ups just simply works. There’s a DIY ethic, a raw sincerity, a snotty delivery and enough hooks to keep you coming back for more. Any pop-punk fan will easily enjoy it.