Review of Mybe's CD "Small Man Syndrome"

Mybe: Small Man Syndrome

Mybe's press release emphasises the point that the combined height of the trio stands (or maybe squats?) at sixteen feet and eleven inches. Although this title of this album is apparently justified on the basis of this statistic, the expression "Small Man Syndrome" could just as easily be applied to the general demographic of Mybe's intended target audience. Indeed, it takes all of about thirty seconds of opening song "Quater (sic) Life Crisis" (not sure if this is a clever social commentary on hitting 40 whilst living near to the equator or just "quarter" spelt incorrectly) to ascertain that we're in the domain of your average 15 year old pop-punker with a clutch of Offspring and Green Day records.

The songs shoot by in a blur of palm-muted guitars, frantic drumming and elongated nasal vowel sounds, with lyrics that make constructive use of a lot of words that you wouldn't normally find in the Oxford guide to the English Language. There is nothing bad about this album; the songs are slick, well-produced and adhere to the traditional pop-punk template, but herein lies the problem - most of the songs are so generic there's no incentive to return to them. At times you feel like your stuck in a void where an American Pie B-Sides compilation is stuck endlessly on repeat.

Credit where credit's due though, there are a couple of crackers on the CD - "Too Stupid to Care" is a fantastically catchy pop-punk gem that will make anyone with a love of tightly written three minute punk songs want to pogo around the room, while "The Bastards have Landed" is a high octane thrash-out. At these points Mybe show that their more than capable of constructing delightful hook-laden guitar tuneage. As they are still a young band hopefully future releases will follow the two aforementioned tracks lead by breaking away from the confines of the traditional pop punk format and showing what they are truly capable of.

• www.mybe.co.uk

Find related articles: clever social commentary, nasal vowel, target audience, vowel sounds, punk songs.