The Vandals – Hollywood Potato Chip

I love The Vandals. Whenever I hear their songs I get excited. Their songs like Jackass, My Girlfriend’s Dead, I Have A Date, Idea For A Movie, I’ve Got An Ape Drape, People That Are Going To Hell, and Anarchy Burger have all become instant classics in my mind. The songs were catchy, fast, hilarious, and the band never got boring. When I heard that the band was coming out with another album, their twelfth studio album, I was obviously excited. So as soon as I got my hands on Hollywood Potato Chip, I ripped it out of the wrapping and slammed it into my CD player; and I must say that even after though the CD is still quite good, it was a little disappointing.

Hollywood Potato Chip rips though 13 tracks in under 34 minutes, and each one of them is in classic Vandals form. Dave Quackenbush’ signature vocals come flowing through your speakers, and its nice to hear that, even after all these years, he really hasn’t lost anything in his vocals. Unfortunately, the lyrics aren’t as good as before. After eleven albums, they are slowly running out of content and the songs seem to be watered down a bit, not as funny or as captivating as before; and definitely not as catchy. This is really disappointing as I have always loved the Vandals‘ lyrical content before hand, and on this album there are only a few tracks which are really up to par. The musical portions are still good, like any Vandals song is. Warren Fitzgerald rips through song after song on his guitar with amazing riffs and fast chords as Joe Escalante backs him up with great bass melodies and then of course, the always phenomenal Josh Freese is behind the kit. What else are you looking for?

The Vandals‘ latest album, Hollywood Potato Chip, is a good album for fans of the band. It does lose some of the power the band is known for though. I wouldn’t recommend it to be the first album you get by these guys. Pick up one of their older ones like Hitler Bad, Vandals Good, Live Fast Diarrea, or Look What I Almost Stepped In first, as those are all classic Vandals albums in my mind.