Radio Rejects are a punk rock band from the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, they formed in 2018 but it wasn’t until 2019 that I got my first taste of them. It came in the form of a 2 track release called Dadcore Demo, the songs on there were Sk8er Dad and Hipster-pocalypse. In 2020 the Radio Rejects managed to record another couple of tracks which were released via Riot Records, the first single was The Greatest in March and then came Monsters. All of these songs were included on their debut album Too Punk For Heaven Not Punk Enough For Hell, and none feel out of place with the other songs.
The opening track is Sk8er Dad (2:55) has a drum intro which leads into a basic power chord progression from the guitar, the melodic leady guitar parts add a bit of flair leading into the verse parts before the guitar does some palm muting, which makes the clean vocal parts a focus point. The chorus parts are mainly gang style vocals backed by a distorted power chord progression accented with musical stabs, the song has a great guitar solo and breakdown part. Lyrically it might not be that interesting to some but musically it is worth a spin for the song writing. The next track Biff Tannen (1:01) which features a really nice vocal intro and musically feels a little faster than the first track, the bass really stands out in this one and the dynamic between soft verse parts and heavier hitting chorus parts. Lyrically this song is more serious than the opening track and this is a trend throughout the album. The song Shermer, Illinois (2:33) is basically a big pop culture reference, with the best bass line on the album and Scream Queen (2:27) is a song about loving a scream queen from the horror movies, while the song Monsters (3:11) tackles a more serious subject of bullying.
Overall, Too Punk For Heaven Not Punk Enough For Hell is a solid debut album with something for everyone. The inclusion of earlier songs was a nice nod to existing fans, the great bass lines in songs like Shermer, Illinois (2:33) and More Than A Game (2:33) are worth learning and fun to play. From the pop punk vibes in the melodic guitar parts to the more simplistic Ramones type guitar progressions that some bedroom guitarist will find accessible enough to teach themselves, this album has got that something special. Nice work!
