Transplants - Haunted Cities (La Salle Records) Released 12/09/05

 

The diverse ‘Haunted Cities’ is Transplants second album that dabbles in punk, hardcore, r ‘n’ b and rap. Although diversity in music can be refreshing and interesting it can also be annoying, especially when you want a bit of good old fashioned punk and not the punk ‘n’ mix that this album delivers. The major let down of this album is Rob’s rapping. He sounds like a mutant hybrid of Limp Bizkit and Crazy Town.

 

There are some loud and angry songs like ‘Not Today’ and ‘Hit the Fence’ that are ok but ‘Pay Any Price’, ‘Killafornia’ and ‘Apocalypse Now’ didn’t really float my boat. ‘Gangsters and Thugs’ is one of the better tracks on the album, Travis delivers a punk drumming master class underneath the mellow catchy chorus about career choices: "some of my friends sell records/some of my friends sell drugs".

 

Of the many styles that the Transplants have chosen to adopt, trying to imitate Blazing Squad in ‘What I Can’t Describe’ is one that doesn’t work. ‘Crash and Burn’ kind of works even though it sounds like you’ve hit the Latin button on a Casio keyboard. It’s a bit odd but funky in a kind of Fun Loving Criminals way.

The political Rancid-esqe ‘American Guns’ is peppered with catchy riffs and is not a bad way to spend three minutes as is ‘Madness’. As well as featuring some cool keys, ‘I Want It All’, also features Tim rapping which makes a refreshing change from Rob.

 

If the Transplants were auditioning for X-Factor, Simon Cowell would be sat there with a puzzled look on his face and saying ‘I don’t know what to make of you’. Some songs are good, some are bad and others are just different. This album should come with the warning: listening to this album may make you want to go and trawl through the Blink 182/Rancid/AFI back catalogue.