All has always been the band that made me buy their next record. Not because they are my all-time favorites, but just because I really admire their technical...

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All has always been the band that made me buy their next record. Not because they are my all-time favorites, but just because I really admire their technical and musical skills with band members that, unlike many other big punkformations, are really good musicians. It's no coincidence that Karl Alvarez and Bill Stevenson often show up in polls for best bassplayer and drummer. All the members seem to contribute a few songs in every release as well. I guess that must be quite unique. Listening to this record the first time a few weeks back, there were only a few songs that I really thought were great (Carry You, Better Than That and Stupid Kind Of Love) but I'm glad I didn't write the review back then. Because in the meantime this album has really grown on me and I discovered a few more very good songs. I guess it has something to do with the technical aspect I mentioned earlier. The songs I liked at once were the most poppy pieces of work, the other great songs on this disc are a bit more sophisticated (Real People, Never Took) or harder (I Want Out, Nothing To Live For). For the first time in my recollection there's a song with some message (Crucifiction) about the hypocrisy of christianism. Undoubtedly not a lot has changed since Mass Nerder, their first on the Epitaph label. Maybe the poppier songs have become a bit more poppy, the hard ones harder, but some of my friends who didn't like All before told me they were crazy about this one, so why not try it out, because it seems to me this band is one of the most underestimated bands around. I never understood why they didn't become more popular. It seems like there's a real love or hate feeling towards them. For me it's love.

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Continuing their quest for ALLness, these pop-punk pioneers crank out the latest installment in the ALL/Descendents lineage. Problematic continues in...

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Continuing their quest for ALLness, these pop-punk pioneers crank out the latest installment in the ALL/Descendents lineage. Problematic continues in the same fashion as Mass Nerder, with the core of catchy melodies sprinkled with a few faster speeds and technical musical parts that achieves even greater success this time around. "Better Than That," "Www.Sara," and "What Are You For?" rank as the best tracks from the record, each demonstrating the band's mastery of the super-hook over single time speeds. "Crucifiction" is another one of my favorites, although it's a harder and darker sound than the band typically attempts. It's still catchy, though, and rails on hypocritical Christians who fail to practice what they preach. "She Broke My Dick" and "Roir" are the quick, hard, and technical contributions that parallel songs like "Life on the Road" from Mass Nerder, and "She Broke My Dick" is a painfully true story about a sexual position gone horribly wrong - it hurts to even think about that one. The biggest difference between Problematic and the last album is the dash of social awareness in the midst of the songs about relationships. Songs like "Lock 'em Away" take on bigger issues than the band normally does, and they turn out great. In general, though, most of the songs could have replaced anything on Mass Nerder without anyone knowing the difference. It's simply another great showing from the guys who helped start this pop-punk craze back in the day, and this is probably the best record the band has put out since Chad Price took over as lead singer. All in all, ALL comes through yet again.

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