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The Briggs

Back to Higher Ground

(Side One Dummy; US: 12 Sep 2006; UK: 11 Sep 2006)

The Briggs’ latest album has more of the punchy, surefire power pop/punk rock that has “instant sing-along” written all over most of the tracks. Whether it’s the catchy title track or the extremely tight “Let Them Know”, which has the band sounding like it’s a well-oiled machine, the Briggs has brought the goods on this album. Falling somewhere between the Dropkick Murphys and Social Distortion, the Briggs shine on “Song of Babylon”, but the quality drops for the mid-tempo “Common and Unknown”, which has more in common with John Mellencamp than anyone in punk circles. Yet they manage to make the most of a rather mediocre tune, but they do hit a wall with the sloppy, tired and stale “Everyone’s an Actor”, which never finds anything worthwhile to cling to. And it’s utterly worthless compared to the fun, bubbly fist-pumper “Wasting Time”, which brings to mind Green Day’s “The Grouch”. Meanwhile, “Insane” is a slightly tamer Rancid-ish effort, but “Blacklist” is another catchy punk ditty.

Rating:

Originally from Cape Breton, MacNeil is currently writing for the Toronto Sun as well as other publications, including All Music Guide, Billboard.com, NME.com, Country Standard Time, Skope Magazine, Chart Magazine, Glide, Ft. Myers Magazine and Celtic Heritage. A graduate of the University of King's College, MacNeil currently resides in Toronto. He has interviewed hundreds of acts ranging from Metallica and AC/DC to Daniel Lanois and Smokey Robinson. MacNeil (modestly referred to as King J to friends), a diehard Philadelphia Flyers fan, has seen the Rolling Stones in a club setting, thereby knowing he will rest in peace at some point down the road. Oh, and he writes for PopMatters.com.


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The Briggs -- "Wasting Time"
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