So I've been a little delinquent in writing my monthly music reviews. It's been a couple of things like work, travel, kids, and maybe a lack of inspiration. It's not that I haven't picked up anything new. It's actually the opposite. So now after a couple of inquiries from my peers about my absence, it's time to ride the donkey and drop a new review.

This review comes to us by way of Sirius XM radio and the Puyallup Sounder. I have to get to the train station at the butt crack of dawn to get a parking spot. And since I'm there about 45 minutes early, I get a lot of time to listen to satellite radio. One morning, while listening and waiting for my train, I stumbled upon to this group and there new release. And unlike other reviews of other bands, I knew absolutely nothing about this band.

Find the album here.

The band is Useless ID and there new record is called Symptoms. Before I get into the review of the album, how about a little about the band. Useless ID has been around since about 1994. What makes them a little bit more interesting is that they formed in Israel and are one of the most popular bands to emerge from the Israel punk scene. They began touring the US in the late 90s. But where they go their big break in the States was when the Ataris heard them and loved their sound. Ultimately this led to doing a split album with the Ataris. And the rest is success.

The album ‘Symptoms’ is the latest release which just came out in February 2012 on Fat Wreck Records. And if I could describe the sound I would classify it as pop-punk that got kicked in the nuts. That being said, it has pop-punk sensibilities; emotional and metaphorical lyrics, sing song choruses, heavy bass a drum beats perfect for dancing and moshing. But then there is the ‘kicked in the nuts’ part of it. It seems like most of the lyrics are directed at some chick that broke the lead singer’s heart. Some of the singing is mellow and harmonic, while some escalates and becomes borderline shouting. It’s all good though but not revolutionary.

Let’s get to the songs. There are some great ones that start minimally and crescendo into something powerful. This recipe tends to repeat through the album’s entirety. But it is executed successfully on a few tracks.

Live or Die – The album opener is not minimal by any means. A few drum beats and guitar strums and you’re off into a ripper of track. I like the crunchiness in the minor chords that are used in this song. There’s a sense of urgency about the song, like they’re trying to persuasively convince you of something in a pre-described three minutes. Point taken.

Symptoms – This track is almost surreal in its execution. Now the verses of the song are mellow which is fairly nondescript in terms of music. Lyrically, they’re marginally more interesting than the musicality addressing a typical topic of love. But where this song shines is on the chorus in its almost dreamlike sequence.

Somewhere – No screaming just mellow sung lyrics about the work it takes to get to a working relationship. The musical beginnings are so innocent, much like the music. But the instrumentation begins to fill out aggressively and charge a heightened level of energy to the song. And the lyrics accompany it. It ramps up heavily to deliver the message and then falls back peacefully back into its mellowness.

Useless ID has been around for some time and their music is similar throughout their records. This may bother some listeners. While others will like that you can pick up the new record and it will sound like anything you’ve listened to before. Many music groups do this and survive for years. Overall, Symptoms is not The Dark Side of the Moon. But it also doesn’t profess to be that. It has a unidirectional movement that it is efficient at. This album probably isn’t going to be album of the year for most people, but it is perfectly sufficient to listen to if you just want to enjoy some music.