Bowling for Soup appeared on my radar with the hit single “1985” which married light power pop and punk with humor and cultural references. Alot like Wierd Al Yankovic without the obvious parodies. You most appreciate Bowling for Soup if you don’t take them too seriously. They are certainly having a good time with the silly lyrics, so why not sit back and enjoy it for what it is. Musically it’s stronger than the previous album, but I get the sense that they are trying so hard to replicate the breakout of “1985” – that they are following in the path of Smashmouth. If you remember, that band eventually became a formulaic retread and their 15 minutes of fame is pretty much gone. I hope that doesn’t happen here. Many of the songs are great fun like “a friendly goodbye” and “99 biker friends.” Sometimes they go a bit too silly on “I’m Gay” and over-the-top-culture-references on “Val Kilmer.” I think if they got too serious on us, we would have to compare them to Green Day. Overall a very worthy album. This is not on emusic yet, so get it on amazon.com