Well, well, a surprise. This is much better punk than you would expect from the juvenile cover. These guys are solid musicians, with emotive walking bass lines galore, guitar solos, and varied tempos and rhythms. The songs are about as memorable and distinct as punk can be.
Shorthanded have a very melodic, friendly tone, good for listening to while holding hands with your girlfriend. The vocalist is a little weak and limp-wristed at times -- the only blatant weakness on the album. They remind me of the punk cover supergroup Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. The lyrics deal mostly with relationships, but lean more to adult feelings and thoughts characteristic of some emo, rather than the teenage shallowness of other punk bands.
Looking for some pleasant punk that knows more than a few chords and doesn't play the same song over and over? Shorthanded is your band.
3.5 tocks
Other coverage for this album
Decapolis 2001Reviewed by ChrisOkay, this is an easy one. If you like what the Descendents or All have done in the past 5 years, you'll like this record, because it's the same thing (almost annoyingly identical). I'm sure part of this is due to it having been recorded and produced by members of those bands, but nonetheless it's pretty much just a copycat effort. If you don't mind knowing that a band is just doing an incredibly…Decapolis 2001Reviewed by Travis PersaudShorthanded is one of the many new melodic punk bands that Tooth and Nail recently picked up. They do have a few other albums out on Boot to Head Records, but this is their first release on Tooth and Nail. After hearing some of their older stuff, I was really excited to hear this new album. I was thinking that if they just expanded on the sound they have already created on past projects, this…Art for the Ears 2000Reviewed by Marco Povervest37 minutes, 15 songs, here we go: Shorthanded is an energetic trio playing pop-punk. Another one! This Bill Stevenson, Stephen Egerton and Jason Livermore produced CD shows a band that knows how to play their instruments and how to use them in creating quality songs. Sometimes their music reminds me a bit of Ghoti Hook with a hint of Element 101. And this is not girls-absorbed lyrical stuff…The Phantom Tollbooth 2000Reviewed by Michial FarmerTooth & Nail must have signed every independent Christian punk band in America, all at once. In the past six months, they've released debut albums by Hangnail, Off the Record, The Undecided, The Deadlines, Element 101, and probably some others that I'm forgetting. Some of these bands have been fairly typical (and boring!) pop-punk, while some of the others, most notably The Deadlines, have had an…Similar sounding releases
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