The Normals – So Bad, So Sad LP (Last Laugh)
Extraordinarily acceptable for late-‘70s, recently-unearthed power-pop and will please those who most assuredly purchased it upon release earlier this year. This is a second LP of studio tracks from yet another no-longer-long-lost Hyped-to-Death/Teenline-style concern that hailed from New Orleans. The retro-stroke campaign for The Normals began with a reissued 7” last year, and ears that I trust claim it had a bit of Dictators pop-metal mixed in with its otherwise expected sound, but this LP is nicely-accomplished power-pop with energy/punk-rock edge, all of which makes for the perfect sonic ground for the addition of great big, unforgettable hooks, yet that never happens on So Bad, So Sad. The knuckle-draggers who operate as brainwashed disciples of this sort of stuff, as well as the new bands that ape it and add nothing of worth, will talk really loudly, in social situations or at record stores, of their unmovable opinion that The Normals are super-catchy and badass in that way or this way, but all I ask is for folks to be honest about what’s entering their ears and ask themselves if this needs to be added to the 1,945,923 examples of identical affairs that constitutes their record collections. (http://lastlaughrecords.us)
(Andrew Earles)
