NOFX - “Double Album” Album Review
After forming the band almost 40 years ago, NOFX has officially announced that they are breaking up in 2023. NOFX has definitely grown over time in production, but they still remain light-hearted and silly.
“Single Album” was released in early 2021 and the songs on “Double Album” didn’t make it on that one. The tracks on both albums were recorded in the same month, but the second album wasn’t released until almost two years later.
The point of the album is to laugh at everything because there’s so much bad going on in the world, so there’s no reason to take things so seriously all of the time.
Starting out with intense guitar, “Darby Crashing Your Party” talks about self-destruction and what events lead a person to get to that state.
“My Favorite Enemy” is Fat Mike, the lead singer and bassist, talking about how he is his worst enemy and him wondering why it has to be that way. He brings himself down and wishes it could be different.
“Don’t Count on Me” is an experimental track for NOFX with numerous transitions making it sound like multiple different songs mashed into one. It starts out slow, then moves into hard rock and then a reggae beat that talks about how he’s guaranteed to bring others down as he continues to be hard on himself.
“Johanna Constant Teen” resumes with the same reggae beat as “Don’t Count Count on Me” making it sound like a duplicate of the song. It then transitions back into the rock theme.
“F**k Day Six” tells the story of when Fat Mike wanted to get clean from his drug addiction in seven days at a Buddhist rehab center, but the most difficult day was day six. He brings fans into his own personal hell and is not scared to name drop.
“Is It Too Soon if Time Is Relative?” comes right for Stephen Hawking talking about how he just wants to be lazy and inactive. They are trying to be funny with the song, but it’s possible that the joke went too far in this track.
“Three Against Me” focuses most on Mike’s three brothers that supposedly abused him growing up. He felt that his family was always against him and he discusses the bullying and mental abuse he faced from his family as his child. He has always felt left out and later in the song, he explains that his parents didn’t care much for him either.
The album consists of a lot of name dropping and hating on other people. It may be because of the hate that Mike personally felt as a child that makes him find humor in negativity.
This is not an album that has deep meaning by any means and it’s weaker than some of their older releases, but it’s not terrible. Fat Mike himself said that this album is not as good as previous releases.
Since they are planning to retire fairly soon, they may be too tired to release their best work. It seems that they are releasing anything at this point.
The main problem with NOFX is that they refuse to expand with experimentation. They are not testing their limits and staying in their own bubble where they are comfortable.
Rating: 5/10
Reviewer’s Favorite Songs: “My Favorite Enemy,” “Three Against Me”
Reviewer’s Least Favorite Songs: “Darby Crashing Your Party”
Brianna Cavalieri is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, email bmc6284@psu.edu.
