August 14th, 2007
"Do You Do You Dig Destruction" by Turbonegro
Turbonegro's 1997 wake-up call Ass Cobra set the bar for depraved, battering-ram garage-punk, but the new Retox is here to put the scene back to sleep. Ten years is a lifetime in the rock racket, and Turbonegro hasn't weathered it well. The several albums in the interim mapped a downward spiral of irrelevance and a lessening sonic intensity that has finally crashed into rock bottom. The group still sings of rock decadence—if a few F-words and rhyming "hips" with "tits" can be considered decadent. The pathetic, cartoonish nonsense that lumbers forward at middle velocity is only further humiliated by a complete dearth of hooks. The sad reality is that Turbonegro used to write immensely catchy songs, as its saving grace against the all-out assault of yore. With Retox, it's done nothing more than release a forgettable version of the Ramones' Pet Sematary.
A.V. Club Rating: D
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