All: Mass Nerder
All is responsible for what may just be the greatest pop-punk single of all time: "Shreen," from the band's 1993 album Breaking Things. The rest of the Colorado group's canon—drawn from a decade-long period that saw All spin off from Descendents, sign with and leave a major label, and switch lead singers about a thousand times—is as uneven as you'd expect considering the band's unpredictability. The new, unfortunately titled Mass Nerder is consistent with that pattern, blaring through 16 songs in just over 30 minutes, and dishing out a mixed bag of pop, punk, and hardcore. As on All's uneven 1995 major-label debut Pummel, singer Chad Price too often straddles the line between hardcore toughness and all-around meatheadedness (remember Pummel's hateful "Hetero"?), denouncing enemies on bitter, ham-fisted tracks like "Greedy." Still, "I'll Get There," "Silly Me," "Think The World," and "Until I Say So" nicely balance meanness and pop sugar, and the band pulls off an impressive Bad Religion impersonation on the terrific anthem "World's On Heroin." After 10 albums, All can still be counted on for some great moments, and there's at least a sufficient number of those on Mass Nerder.