Does This Look Infected? - Album Review

Much like what I said about movies, I feel the same about music. I enjoy listening to a variety of things, and that being things under the genres I like the most. However, it is rare a whole album, from start to finish, is great all the way through. Off the top of my head I can say a few (and of course it is all personal opinion), the last Metallica album 'Death Magnetic' is all parts heavy and great, Green Day's live album 'Bullet In A Bible' is a great collection of songs and an immensely fun show to sing along to and included, is Sum 41's second studio album 'Does This Look Infected?' All of which, I have listened to a great deal of times. I promise as well that despite the cover and title, the look and sound of them have no connection to the songs in any real way. Even so, the singer and rhythm guitarist Deryck Whibley stated that the title was made up on the spot near the very end of putting the album together, after everything was recorded. So, with that in mind, the focus on to the music, lyrics and direction of the album will not have a distraction.

Like I said, this album from track one to track twelve (or fourteen depending if you count the bonus tracks) has one of the pest punk rock and part metal fusion vibes I've ever heard. And despite some songs having more of one feel in comparison to another, there isn't an abrupt arrangement in which it switches around a whole lot. I don't feel lost or confused, but guided on a good listening path in a sense of energy and heaviness. 

Each song I feel has a set of strong and well written lyrics. Many songs on radio today especially have simplistic lyrics and the same few repeated always, this album however strays away from that. The rhyming structures and words chosen for them are coupled perfectly in many senses. With background and deeper meanings I see time after time, the lyrics really make these songs better each time I'll listen to them. Catching something new, or finding a new understand or feel to a grouping of lyrics, I get hooked on a song every time it is played.

Sometimes albums have a positive direction or story behind it. Like Green Day's American Idiot or more recently released 21st Century Breakdown albums. Labeled 'Rock Operas,' there is a definite story behind each song and a obvious relationship from one to the next. It is not that this album by Sum 41 is random or just a collection of songs, but it is neither the 'Rock Opera' either. To me though, there seems to be a link from certain songs to others, and an even possible arrangement that could create that 'story' some albums have. Overall, it is one of the best punk albums I've ever listened to. I love playing along to as many songs as I could with my guitar, playing the songs loud when no one's home, or even just listening to it from time to time.