Does This Look Infected?
(Def Jam)
Songs about teen suicide and the need for kids to stay motivated suggest the boys of Sum 41 have done a little more homework than the script for pimple-popping metal-punk recommends. Or is it that the faces behind the horror-flick costumes Sum 41 don for the cover art are twice the age of most fans?
Still, applause please for an album that reminds kids that if they can find a laugh in a fart they can probably work their way through teenage angst.
But the Canadians offer more than a public service announcement. WWVII Part Two warns of the attack of the ultimate popular kids - clones with designer genes - in the year 3468. 'Superior in almost every way, with telepathic DNA, they'll hunt you down, there's nowhere you can hide/ Yeah!/ Created for the killing machine, proto-nuclear human beings, we must help prevent this genocide!/ Have we created our own demise?/ They're out to kill, using their minds/ You feel the chill run down your spine/ Tell me, since when has being human been a crime?'
The rest of Does This Look Infected? won't make much sense unless you've just been sent to your room after being busted using your porn collection. 'I'll never take part in the growing population/ Or waste my time with further education/ Forget what we know, it's just a big show/ What they want to control/ So jaded, frustrated, it's all so complicated/ Fashion no passion surrounds me.'