(compilation album/ NOO NOO RECORDS)
Canada�s never really been acknowledged as a country with much pop-punk music to wail about, yet here are Dead Letter Dept with this anthology. The 20 tracks run in at less than one hour long in total, so with an average track length of 3 minutes you�ve got to brace yourself for this quartet�s impassioned brand of short and sharp punk underpinned with some awesomely catchy riffs hacked aloft by guitarist Danny Complex. Not that the riffs sound that complex� and it must be remarked that virtually every single track here does sound like the next, while Greenday fans will find it nigh impossible to hear a difference between their �Day and this fine Dept.
Good thing then that the upbeat and energetic vibes are the warthog�s bollox, with some awesome tunes coupled nicely with wads of wicked song titles such as the zest-fuelled �I�ll Never Get To Go To Space� So Fuck The World.� Not forgetting �Spider Man Band-Aid Covers A Bloodied Wrist,� �Olive Oil� I Need You� and �The Peas of Jumanji.� I tell ya!
And even when �Have I Told You Lately� sounds as though it�s going to be a nice chilled number, the respite is just 45 seconds long before THE pop-punk surge kicks back in and the pace whips into frantic top gear once more.
Despite having only been going as a band since 1999, their pre-�99 demo tapes allegedly � at least according to them � will NEVER be heard.
But if those early-day numbers are as raw and reckless and downright rollicking as these 20 tracks then they NEED to be heard for the Dead Letter Dept are so alive and mightily kicking. 4/5 (STEVE RUDD)
Release date: 18th August 2003
www.deadletterdept.com
www.noonoorecords.com