The Living End: Modern ARTillery : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

On the living end's second lp, 2001's Roll On, this Melbourne punk trio thickened its Clash-meets-Stray Cats porridge with AC/DC-inspired riffs; Modern Artillery, cut in L.A. with producer Mark Trombino (Jimmy Eat World, Blink-182), sweetens the recipe with a lot of pure pop. Singer-guitarist Chris Cheney hasn't abandoned his spittle-lubed snarl, but he delivers the unabashedly tuneful "Jimmy" in an open-throated tenor that suggests this punk has located his inner Rick Springfield. The album's exuberant hookiness can be deceptive: Cheney's new songs are laced with an unease that is by turns general ("Who's Gonna Save Us?") and specific (the eight-minute closer, "The Room," seems inspired by his own scrape with death in a car crash), as standard-issue youthful discontent gives way to mortal dread. Some say that real punk bands shouldn't change, but the Living End continue to advance the form.