The Subways - All Or Nothing

All Or Nothing (2008, WEA) The Subways' second studio album. ***

All Or Nothing is actually quite a pleasant surprise, as I'd only heard the Subways once before during their performance on David Letterman (or was it Leno?). Either way, their performance was terrible, as was the song. Needless to say I went into All Or Nothing with low expectations. I still don't believe they're good, but their latest album almost proves me wrong.

"Girls and Boys" suffers from being the perfect opener; it features a killer riff that has energy that couldn't possibly be fabricated. On the downside, it's the best song on the album, and nothing after it comes close to matching its brilliance. Why the Subways didn't follow the punk and metal instincts that the riff suggests is unfathomable. Instead they lay down vocal tracks and emotion that sound like post-grunge. It could be worse - namely, it could be pure grunge. Doesn't anyone get that Seattle's grunge scene was just a fad? There's none of it left and it doesn't seem to be anywhere near coming back.

Ensuing tracks like "Kalifornia" aren't half-bad, but they do sound like Nirvana B-material. All fairly loud with boring, predictable time signatures and riffs. After the above-mediocre sprint of "Shake! Shake!" the album winds up fishing for interesting moments, but only reels in variations of already-established grunge motifs. Really, there isn't anything on All Or Nothing that can be identified as the pinnacle of their mistakes. Instead, it's a collection of work that could have, should have been better.