When the punk chord progressions first began playing through my speakers, I was truly afraid that this would be another MxPx "pop punk" clone. A lot of the songs have that type of feel, and the vocals are very much in the same vein as those typical to the pop punk genre. The more I listened to it, though, the more I realized that this wasn't just a clone band. A lot of the songs do sound very similar and like other bands, using typical chord progressions and drumming patterns. But Noggin Toboggan also does some of their own thing. Some of the guitar on this disc is really cool, as several of the songs' backbones are actually classical-scale-based riffs rather than straight chord progressions. These sound very cool in the mix. I actually wish they would do this more often, as I find a lot of the repetition in other songs boring by the fourth or fifth song. The drumming on this CD really annoys me, as it is not produced well at all and thus is very muddy. Yes, I know it is punk, but I would at least like to make out what the drums are doing.
Despite some of this reviewer's nitpicking, this disc is actually a very fun listen. I found that it grew on me with multiple listens, and I realized that the energy which exuded from my speakers was very catchy. I would love to see these guys move in a more classical-riff-based style of punk, since those tracks stand out to me, but this CD should appeal to most punk listeners in general. Besides, with a name like Noggin Toboggan, what would one expect but punk?
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