60 Ft. Dolls
' debut album
The Big 3
is an unfocused but frequently invigorating collection of punk-pop. While the group doesn't have the melodic exuberance of
Ash
or the wild, otherworldly sense of pop style of their Welsh contemporaries
Super Furry Animals
,
can rock very, very hard, bashing their chords out in a frenzy. Those three-chord romps are viscerally exciting, but the group is at their best when they slow the tempo down slightly and concentrate on writing songs as catchy as the
Jam
-like single
"Stay."
Even with its inconsistent songs,
shows considerable promise, and it's refreshing to hear a young band in the late '90s rocking this hard with such little pretension. [The 2015 reissue of the album adds all kinds of goodies on a second disc. Eleven B-sides make up the bulk of the disc and show off the group's hard-rocking side with a few detours into balladry (the pretty "Rosalyn") and a cracking take on the
Small Faces
' "After Glow." A previously unreleased
Peel
session from 1996 is here, with a supercharged version of "Stay" being the highlight. It's a well put-together package and a long overdue look back at one of the under-rated gems of the '90s pop scene.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine