Album Review: Senior Discount – The Best Revenge

Senior Discount have been playing across the US for over a decade, in that time they’ve released two full length albums and a trio of EP’s as well as playing hundreds of shows with everyone from the punk rock of Anti-Flag and Guttermouth, through to the hardcore of Leftover Crack and A Wilhelm Scream and the pop punk of MC Lars and Patent Pending, indicating that Senior Discount have an across the board appeal that few can match. Paper + Plastick Records signed up the Rhode Island quartet earlier this year, now the label has released the band’s latest album, The Best Revenge, that follows on from their 2013 full length, This Is Not The End. 

A Fistful Of Discount starts of The Best Revenge in appropriate style with an instrumental that captures and amplifies the essence of a spaghetti western soundtrack, if it had been composed by a punk band from Rhode Island. From this point The Best Revenge kicks into gear with a blast of poppy punk rock that is delivered in their own unique style, including cover versions of Cyndi Lauper‘s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Bob Marley‘s Three Little Birds, and a few added extras in the shape of a live version of I’m Crazy and the almost inevitable addition of an acoustic version of album track, in this case Afterlife.

The Best Revenge captures the spirit of punk bands such as The Vandals and The Queers along with an influence from the pop punk scene, particularly in their choice of cover versions, along with a dash of ska punk. If you ignore the cover versions, there’s nothing inherently wrong with these but Senior Discount‘s self penned material outshines them, and the bonus tracks, what you have is a solid eight tracks from a band who don’t take themselves overly seriously and still sound like they are still having a blast after more than a decade together.

The Best Revenge can be streamed and purchased via Bandcamp here and via Paper + Plastick Records here