The Muffs
Blonder and Blonder (Reprise)
by Marc Hirsh
The Muffs
Blonder and Blonder (Reprise)
by Marc Hirsh
originally published in the Public News, May 17, 1995
Blonder and Blonder makes me happy. This is not something that punk albums usually do. Excited, yes, but rarely happy. I was smiling within the first minute and maintained it throughout the duration. Kim Shattuck's songs just do that to me, I guess. Or they do now.
As someone who doesn't consider the words "Green Day" are the result of some evil corporate plot to give the world a happy-go-lucky gang of pseudo-punks, I'd have to say that the Muffs are pretty much the only existing perfection of punk-pop. Yeah, you-know-who came pretty close, but the Muffs start where they end and end God knows where. I'm still waiting for the dust to settle.
Mixing punk and pop isn't new, of course. It's just been a long time since the two have fit together so snugly. Few bands ever get beyond the wall of guitars and relentless tempo of the Ramones to get to the key ingredient of their success, the well-written pop song. The Muffs remember, though. With their punk credentials established, they throw their weight behind the catchiest damn songs ever sung by someone who sounds like she gargles flaming sandpaper before standing in front of a microphone.
They also cover territory a lot of bands refuse to touch. The influence of country music comes through in "Red-Eyed Troll," and if the similarities in some of the lyrics of "Oh Nina" to Abba's "Nina Pretty Ballerina" aren't just a coincidence, and I'm beginning to think they're not, then all pop music has become fair game for punk scavengers. And the chiming pop of "Won't Come Out To Play" makes it clear that it just doesn't matter.
They've got lyrics, too, I guess. Nothing here is going to win any poetry awards, but nothing made me cringe, either. Normally, I'd ask for a little more, but it's hard to be picky about these sort of things. Most of the words of the pre-Beatles classic rock 'n' roll songs were pretty much just there to give somebody an excuse to sing. The Muffs know this and, more importantly, use it. The result: a perfect album.