Hand Over Your Loved Ones

With “Parental Advisory Explicit Content” sticker proudly displayed on the cover here comes more fun and frolics from those wacky people who gave the world ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ and a cover of Erasure’s ‘A Little Respect’. If the former was an appealing, if over-exposed slice of punk-lite and the latter a reasonably decent makeover, Hand Over Your Loved Ones suffers badly from both lack of melodic nous and puerile lyrics.

The opener and recent single ‘An American In Amsterdam’ sees our heroes go on what appears to be an unsuccessful dope-smoking odyssey on the streets of the Dutch capital. In his irritating adenoidal whine singer Brendan B Brown ponders “I think I saw some for sale on the small streets” and gets it about right when he moans, “I am just a dork but I come from New York.” Here, here!

Incredibly, things take a turn for the worse on the cringeworthy ‘The Song That I Wrote When You Dissed Me’ which seemingly threatens to out a gay friend: “Got the tape of the rape and that ass that you pound, how profound, pass it round.”

The closing track glories in the title ‘Dynamite Satchel Of Pain’ which features the refrain “my balls are bigger than a dynamite satchel of pain”, repeated endlessly over a faux jazzy backdrop and a cast of what sounds like dozens.

Avoid like the plague if you value your sanity.