When it comes to pop-punk, nobody excelled at the form quite like California’s Descendents. Over-stimulated through caffeine and sporting raging late-adolescent libidos, the band eschewed the political and the nihilistic for subject matter that was more down to earth and still relevant. Many of their songs were about girls, sex, and the lack thereof, and occasionally fishing. In 1986, they released their third album, Enjoy! On April 24, the record gets a well-deserved vinyl reissue through ORG Music, along with a limited Punk Note sleeve edition. There are also compact disc and cassettes available.
By the release of Enjoy!, the Los Angeles suburbanites Descendents had defied the odds twice over, surviving far beyond the modest but very likeable pop-rock beginnings of their pre-Milo Aukerman “Ride the Wild” b/w “It’s a Hectic World” 45, which was released in 1980, and the quick-blast EP of melodic hardcore that comprises the “Fat EP” as it came out the following year.
Descendents’ percentage quashing began with the two full-length albums to follow, Milo Goes to College, released in 1982, and then I Don’t Want to Grow Up, which hit stores in 1985 and featured a lineup change after a hiatus. That both LPs are beloved by fans and critics is unusual enough; the records are not just pop-punk done right, they are considered by many to be qualitative pinnacles of an oft-derided sub-genre. Pulling this off after essentially ceasing operations is where the twice-over unlikelihood figures in.
Vocalist Milo had indeed fulfilled the debut’s titular prophecy and left for college. Bill Stevenson’s keister was warming the drum stool in Black Flag. Guitarist Frank Navetta quit the band in rather dramatic fashion, burning his equipment and moving to Oregon to become a full-time fisherman. When Aukerman was once again available and interested, Stevenson quit Black Flag, and they reconvened with bassist Tony Lombardo for I Don’t Want to Grow Up. Ray Cooper replaced Navetta.
Enjoy! was the attempt to pull off a crazy trifecta. To make it plain, most punk bands don’t hang together long enough to complete one album, and if they do, it’s likely no great shakes. Said album might have a few solid-to-excellent songs, but there will also be a few lesser tracks, filler, and even cuts that are downright bad. Descendents booted out back-to-back classics with nary a weak song from front to back.
If Enjoy! doesn’t quite measure up to its predecessors, it’s still a success, if flawed, but distinctive, in that it hits as their heaviest album up to that point. The first two were speedier in keeping with hardcore norms. Doug Carrion replaced Lombardo on bass as it seemed like the band had absorbed a lesson from Black Flag, specifically that hardcore had basically devolved into a stick-a-fork-in-it situation.
The opening title track illustrates this while suffering from the band’s low humor, here scatological and body odor-based. The prior Descendents albums all had laugh jabs that were in poor taste, but they always combined the humor with rawness, hooks, and velocity. Instrumentally, “Enjoy” is a wild and hefty affair as it rubs shoulders with the hunkiness of the era’s Black Flag. But for the first time, the jokes are wearing thin. The unfortunate “Orgofart” is eminently skippable, as they didn’t bother to include any music at all.
Enjoy! isn’t devoid of quickness, as the coffee-themed “Kids” has an appropriate pace and “Hürtin’ Crüe” sports a speed metal-ish feel. But the overall emphasis is on timeless catchiness through a sweet cover of The Beach Boys’ “Wendy” and the outstanding originals “Sour Grapes,” “Get the Time,” “Cheer,” and “80s Girl.” Spreading out to nearly eight minutes, “Days Are Blood” insinuates even more Black Flag influence.
Descendents went on to record many more albums during subsequent reunions but Enjoy! completes the necessary three (well, four when including the Bonus Fat comp album). This Punk Note edition offers an improvement on an underwhelming sleeve design. It’s a fine acquisition if one gets it, and one can get it if they try.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
B+
