Milloy - Creating Problems While Practicing Solutions

Artist: Milloy

Album: Creating Problems While Practicing Solutions

Label: Household Name Records

Over at Household Name Records, Milloy's label introduces the band as playing "loud, impassioned catchy punk/rock songs that burn with a melodic ferocity rarely heard on this side of the Atlantic since LEATHERFACE and SNUFF surfaced in the late 80's."  I must admit, I agree - it is pretty uncommon to hear this style of punk rock over in the UK.  But what this convoluted description really means is that Milloy sounds more like an American punk band than anything out of the UK in the past thirty years.  In a gross generalization, I'd say that the UK punk scene seems to have been giving rise to great modern streetpunk bands like Frontkick and Born to Lose, or continuing the fine tradition of Oi! with bands like The Business.  Bands like Leatherface, and now Milloy, just don't seem to fit that mould.  Milloy's latest outing sounds like the first in time in the band's 9 year career where they've had access to truly cutting edge recording and mastering equipment.  That in itself reveals just how much work a quality band of this style needs to put in to get some recognition in the UK.

The reference to Leatherface is a particularly accurate, and convenient, for describing Milloy's sound.  Imagine only the fastest, most intense Leatherface songs, throw on a coat of modern polish, and you'll know what you're in for.  Creating Problems While Practicing Solutions is a difficult type of album to review simply because there's absolutely nothing wrong with it.  The songs are tight, the choruses catchy, it isn't overly poppy despite the melodic core, and the slight wakefield accent results in vocal delivery just different enough to separate Milloy from their american counterparts.  But at the same time, its hard to boast about the songs individually since most of the tracks tend to blend together.  However, Milloy's second full length record is anything but boring, and the band keeps the album down to that magic half hour mark, making such a criticism hard to hold considering the quality of the product.  The lyrics also overshadow such a criticism because of the band's obvious social conscious, making for some deep, and not always entirely obvious, social critiques.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that despite fully acknowledging the album's limitations, I kept coming back for more, and I predict any fan of Leatherface or modern american punk rock will too.