Feel Good Record of the Year

With an unassailable punk rock pedigree earned from over 20 years in the trenches, No Use For a Name could be excused for taking a nice long break, but the journeyman act continues to endure here. THE FEEL GOOD RECORD OF THE YEAR is another in a long line of fine pop-punk LPs, with neither half of the equation neglected. Bittersweet melodies and choruses subtly color otherwise sturdy buzz saws with golden California sun. "I Want to Be Wrong" captures the secret melancholy of the Everly Brothers without resorting to retro costuming, and "Ontario" is a surprisingly beautiful and sad piano ballad that leads into the barn-burning album ender, "Pacific Standard Time". Whoever said that punks couldn't grow old gracefully isn't paying attention to the distinguished traces of silver creeping into No Use For A Name's style.