Let's just face the facts, shall we? No Fun At All is a SoCal party punk imitation, with the one misnomer in that they are from Sweden. They sound like Pennywise's self titled album and Unknown Road were their sole sources of inspiration for starting a band and the seventeen songs of this debut are uniformly similar in style and execution. No Fun At All is nothing more than yet another soundalike band playing a style that was rapidly approaching saturation in 1995. However, you must give credit where credit is due because No Straight Angles is well done enough to warrant a few listens every so often.

Where No Fun At All succeeds is that they play this style very well and have songs that are just catchy enough to be enjoyable. Singer Ingemar sounds much like Pennywise's Jim Lindbergh, only a touch lower in pitch. The appeal to this style of singing is very basic. Fans love the everyday man, moderately melodic vocals because it's very easy to sing along with. Pennywise has thrived by giving the fans precisely what they want to hear. No Fun At All delivers a style that incorporates that approach. Their music is speedy, yet melodic and fluid. In a live setting, this is guaranteed to spontaneously encourage young punk boys to flail around madly in their little pits. The energy is infectious and translates well.

No Straight Angles is meant for those who aren't immediately turned off by bands who have styles extremely similar to existing bands. I wouldn't suggest this record to someone who has had enough of the melodic pop-punk format, but for those who can't get enough Pennywise, this is a good one to snap up sometime.

Review by John Chedsey

Review date: 08/2001

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